TH  E 


OF 


JOHN    DOUGHTY 


- 


THE 

PIR4BLE  OF  CREATION, 

0 

» 

BEING  •  •     . 

A  Presentation   of  the   Spiritual   Sense  of  the   Mosaic 
Narrative   as   contained    in  the 

First   Chapter  of  Genesis, 


—  BY  — 


REV.  JOHN  DOUGHTY, 

Author  of  "  The  World  Beyond,"  "  The  Garden   of  Eden," 
"The  Secret  of  the   Bible,"  etc.,  etc. 


SAN  FRANCISCO  : 

Stt'EDENBORG    LIBRARY    AND    TRACT    SOCIETY, 

1626  O'Farrell  Street. 

1892. 


Press  of  Vnlleau  &"  Peterson, 

410  Sansome  Street, 

San  Francisco. 


PREFA  CE. 


There  can  be  no  dcmbt  that  a  large  portion  of  the 
prejudice  against  the  Bible  which  is  held  b}'  skepti- 
cal minds  comes,  not  so  much  from  wilful  infidelity 
as  from  misunderstanding.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  the  present  tendency  among  all  Christian  sects 
to  deny  the  plenary  or  verbal  inspiration  of  that  book 
which  claims,  in  itself,  to  be  the  Word  of  God.  It 
is  not  because  people  want  to  reject  it  so  much  as 
because  they  cannot  discern  wherein  its  inspiration, 
in  many  parts,  consists. 

The  method  of  interpretation  revealed  by  the  L,ord 
through  Emanuel  Swedenborg  and  set  forth  in  the 
Writings  of  that  illumined  expositor,  discloses  the 
fact  that  it  is  only  in  its  spiritual  sense  that  the 
Word  of  the  L,ord  can  be  made  fully  consistent,  har- 
monious and  rational,  and  be  justified,  as  such,  to 
spiritual  minds. 

These  lectures,  delivered  in  San  Francisco,  Port- 
land, Or.,  and  other  places,  to  large  audiences,  were 
designed  to  set  forth  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the 
Mosaic  account  of  creation,  as  given  in  the  Arcana 
Coelestia  of  Swedenborg,  in  a  form  so  easy  to  com- 
prehend, that  none  might  fail  to  understand  who 

761997 


were  willing  to  listen  in  an  unprejudiced  mood. 
They,  of  course,  give  the  spiritual  sense  of  a  very 
small  portion  of  the  Scripture  ;  but  the}^  at  least 
suggest  the  reasonableness  and  beauty  of  that 
method  of  interpretation  and  may  serve  to  lead  the 
interested  mind  to  investigate  further,  and  nearer 
the  fountain  head,  for  the  principles  upon  which  it 
is  founded. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  March  ist,  1892. 

J.   D. 


CONTENTS. 
I 

PAGE 

Dut  of  the  Darkness  into  the  Light,  •  9 

II 

The  Heavenh-  Firmament,  -     .     .     .     _ 

III 

First   Spiritual  Fruits,  55 

IV 

The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith,  78 

V 
The  Living  Soul,  -          IOI 

VI 

The  Image  of  God,  -----     124 

VII 

The  Sabbath  of  Rest, -     -     -     r46 


I. 

OUT  OF   THE    DARKNESS   INTO    THE    LIGHT. 

hi  the  beginning  God  created  the  htaven  and  the  earth.  And.  the 
ear'h  was  without  form,  and  void;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face 
of  the  deep.  And  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the 
waters.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light:  and  there  was  light. 
And  God  saw  the  light,  that  it  was  good:  and  God  divided  the  light 
from  the  darkness.  And  God  called  the  light  Day,  and  the  dark- 
ness he  called  Night.  And  the  evening  ani  the  morning  were  the 
first  dav. — Gen.  I:  1-5. 

One  error  is  usually  the  parent  of  a  thousand. 
False  premises  inevitably  lead  to  false  conclusions. 
A  single  flaw  in  the  logic  of  an  argument  is  subver- 
sive of  the  truth  of  all  succeeding  statements.  A 
mistake  in  one  figure,  at  the  beginning  of  a  protracted 
arithmetical  calculation  will  grow  into  an  error  of 
millions  in  the  outcome. 

This  law  is  universal.  Error  will  not,  in  any  of 
its  aspects,  produce  truth.  There  is  only  one  royal 
rule  for  the  pursuit  of  wisdom,  and  that  is  to  start. 
from  facts  or  propositions  which  are  true.  In  that 
case  we  at  least  begin  aright  with  a  fair  prospect  of 
so  continuing;  while  otherwise  we  begin  wrong  with 
a  certainty  of  diverging  further  and  further  into  er- 
ror at  each  succeeding  step. 


io  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

Tlu-  subversion  of  this  rule  has  constituted  the 
grand  trouble  of  Christian  doctrine.  It  is  this  which 
has  divided  churches,  created  sects,  aroused  the  din 
of  conflicting  opinions,  and  rent  Christendom  into 
a  hundred  warring  fragments.  It  is  this  which  has 
placed  weapons  in  the  hands  of  infidels  where- 
with to  wound  the  church,  has  furnished  them  with 
arguments  for  the  overthrow7  of  its  truths,  and  has 
presented  to  them  fair  opportunities  for  ridicule. 

It  is  this  which  has  disgusted  honest  seekers  after 
truth,  and  repelled  the  many  whose  minds  are  so 
constituted  that  they  cannot  decide  between  con- 
flicting opinions  which  are  equally  unfounded,  nor 
accept  of  dogmas  which  offend  their  rationality. 

No  illustration  of  this  could  be  more  obvious  than 
that  which  may  be  made  by  the  estimation  which 
has  been  placed  upon  the  Bible.  That  book  is  held 
to  be  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  regarded  as  a  reveal- 
ment  of  his  will,  and  an  embodiment  of  his  wisdom. 
So  far  it  is  well.  But  as  a  fundamental  principle  of 
its  construction,  we  are  further  informed  that  it  is 
to  be  literally  construed;  that  it  has  no  higher 
purpose  than  appears  upon  its  face;  that  its  histories 
are  mere  human  histories,  its  allusions  to  creation 
and  other  kindred  themes  literal  geological  science; 
and  the  inconsistencies  of  its  letter,  mysteries  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  human  mind,  to  be  acknowleged 
by  faith. 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  tJic  Light.  1 1 

This  is  the  error  which  has  been  the  parent  of  all 
perversions  of  the  Bible.  Paul  says  that  "all 
scripture  is  God-breathed.'  He  admonishes  his 
brethren  that  God  has  made  them  able  ministers, 
not  of  its  letter  but  of  its  spirit.  And  he  warns 
them  that  "the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth 
life.':  So  it  is  his  delight  to  extract  from  sacred 
history  its  true  spirit.  He  has  little  use  for  its  let- 
ter, except  to  draw  from  narrative  or  ceremonial 
command  a  spiritual  explanation  which  shall  lead 
his  hearer's  mind,  away  from  the  earthly  things  of 
which  they  seem  to  treat,  up  to  the  holier  lessons 
with  which  he  shows  them  to  be  full. 

In  this  he  does  but  follow  the  example  of  our 
Lord.  Whether  in  quotations  from  the  old  Scrip- 
ture or  in  sayings  of  his  own,  our  Lord  ever  leads 
the  mind  above  the  letter,  above  the  earthly,  to  the 
spiritual  lesson  with  which  the  literal  is  filled.  With- 
out a  parable — without  a  spiritual  meaning  within 
the  literal  saying — it  is  declared  that  He  never  spake 
to  them.  In  this  manner  the  water  of  Jacob's  well 
became  a  lesson  of  that  spiritual  water — the  gospel 
truth — of  which  he  who  drank  would  live  forever. 
In  this  way  the  story  of  the  destruction  and  up- 
building of  the  temple  became,  at  his  lips,  a  history 
of  his  own  death  and  resurrection.  Thus  the  mira- 
cle of  the  multiplication  of  the  loaves  and  fishes 
became,  under  his  explanation,  an  illustration  of 


12  77ie  Parable  of  Creation. 

the  truth  that  men  were  to  labor  for  the  meat 
which  eudureth  unto  everlasting  life.  And  when 
his  disciples  were  inclined  grossly  to  misunderstand 
the  command  that  they  were  to  eat  his  flesh  and 
drink  his  blood,  He  declared  to  them,  "It  is  the 
Spirit  that  quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing.' 

But  why  multiply  examples?  The  literal  sense 
of  the  Scripture  is  valueless  except  as  it  contains, 
enwrapped  within,  a  spiritual  lesson.  The  Word  of 
God  has  been  made  of  none  effect  by  the  process  of 
literalizing  it.  This  fundamental  error  has  sapped 
its  life,  has  made  it  seem  inconsistent,  and  has 
taught  by  implication  that  God  had  no  higher 
motive  in  giving  the  Old  Testament  than  to  write  a 
history  of  the  Jews,  and  no  grander  purpose  in  the 
opening  of  Genesis  than  to  inform  us  of  the  man- 
ner of  earth's  creation.  Thus  has  error  rendered 
the  Divine  Word  a  mystery  to  its  believers,  and  a 
derision  to  its  enemies. 

The  fundamental  truth  which  restores  to  the  Bi- 
ble its  true  character  is,  that  it  is  throughout  a  book 
of  spiritual  wisdom.  It  ought  not  to  be  otherwise 
believed  than  that  when  God  undertakes  to  give  a 
revelation  to  man,  his  design  is  to  communicate  to 
him  knowledge  concerning  those  things  which  man 
by  his  natural  powers  has  no  means  of  learning. 
Thus  He  would  not  seek  to  teach  man  history, 
geography  or  science,  because  these  are  things 


Out  of  the  Dai kness  into  the  Light.  13 

which  man  may  learn  by  the  exercise  of  his  natural 
faculties  of  observation,  investigation  and  reason. 
It  is  also  better  that  man  should  learn  them  for 
himself,  because,  by  so  doing,  he  developes  his 
rationality,  judgment  and  manhood,  which,  were  all 
knowledge  miraculously  given  of  the  Lord,  would 
remain  undeveloped. 

But  there  is  a  certain  line  of  truths — those  which 
relate  to  God,  heaven  and  eternal  life,  which  are 
beyond  discovery  by  mere  natural  study  or  deduc- 
tion. They  cannot  be  thought  out  from  any  prin- 
ciples of  earthly  science,  nor  evolved  from  any  inner 
consciousness  formed  from  a  life  in  the  world. 
The)-  can  only  be  learned  by  revelation  from  God. 
Consequently  when  the  Lord  gives  a  revelation  to 
man,  it  is  and  must  be  concerning  those  higher  and 
more  hidden  things  of  which  he  can  learn  in  no 
other  way.  If  the  Divine  mind  inspire  a  book  it 
will  thus  be  worthy  of  its  infinite  authorship,  and 
will  teach  concerning  God  and  his  nature,  the  future 
life,  and  the  means  of  reaching  the  highest  blessings 
which  that  life  affords.  It  would  be  derogatory  to 
the  character  of  the  Divine  mind,  to  attribute  any 
other  design  to  the  books  which  are  to  constitute 
the  Word  of  God  to  man. 

Why  should  God  inspire  a  history  of  the  wars  of 
the  Jews  and  the  cruelties  they  practiced?  Why 
a  narrative  of  the  abominations  of  the  heathen 


14  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

nations  of  Canaan  ?  Why  should  he  miraculously 
give  forth  an  account  of  creation  which,  from  a 
scientific  point  of  view,  is  in  no  wise  equal  to  that 
which  the  rude  rocks  of  earth  have  themselves  re- 
vealed? Only  because  they  have  higher  meanings 
than  error  has  been  in  the  habit  of  admitting;  only 
because  the  parable  is  always  God's  chosen  method 
of  spiritual  utterance;  only  because  they  were 
written  neither  as  history  nor  as  science;  not  to 
teach  the  one  nor  to  enforce  the  other,  but  to  use 
outward  narrative  forms  for  the  expression  of  inter- 
ior spiritual  truth. 

In  this  view  we  approach  the  Mosaic  account  of 
the  creation.  It  was  not  divinely  inspired  as  a  scien- 
tific treatise  but  as  a  spiritual,  allegory.  It  is  not 
fitted  together  as  a  consistent  geological  formula  of 
natural  facts,  but  as  a  weaving  of  the  order  of  earth's 
development  into  a  spiritual  parable.  Its  express- 
ions are  not  worded  in  scientific  form,  and  its  state- 
ments are  not  rendered  with  scientific  precision;  but 
both  are  so  arranged  according  to  the  divine  law  of 
correspondences,  and  after  the  method  of  sacred 
symbolism,  as  to  effect  the  spiritual  purpose  de- 
signed. 

So  if  it  lacks  philosophic  precision,  if  it  fails  in 
scientific  accuracy,  if  it  is  somewhat  inconsistent 
with  modern  geology,  it  is  because  it  has  no  relation 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  the  LigJit.  15 

to  science.  Its  symbols  are  correct,  its  correspon- 
dence is  clear,  its  spiritual  meaning  true.  It  is  in 
this  latter  fact  that  its  divinity  resides.  It  is  in 
this  that  it  becomes  worthy  of  its  Divine  origin. 
For  this  and  not  the  other  is  its  purpose,  end  and 
use. 

It  has  been  clearly  shown  by  scholars  that  the 
pecular  style  of  Hebrew  in  which  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing ten  chapters  of  Genesis  are  written,  places 
their  origin  away  beyond  the  time  of  Moses.  Infidel 
writers  lay  great  stress  on  this  point,  and  assert 
that  Moses  could  not  have  written  them.  But  they 
forget  that  he  does  not  claim  to  be  their  author. 

o 

They  ignore  the  f^ct,  plainly  indicated  in  various 
portions  of  Scripture  that  there  were  sacred  books 
which  constituted  a  Word  of  God  before  Moses 
wrote  and  before  Abraham  was  born.  These  books, 
though  now  lost,  were  in  existence  in  the  time  of  the 
early  scripture  penmen,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  by  them  they  are,  on  several  occasions,  quoted. 
The  style  of  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis, 
then,  simply  shows  that  they  were  copied  from  some 
more  ancient  sacred  books  How  ancient  they 
were  no  man  can  tell.  It  does  not  matter.  But  that 
they  are  written  in  the  style  of  sacred  symbolism  in 
its  purest  form — according  to  that  science  of  corres- 
pondences which  the  ancients  understood  so  well, 
and  that  thus  they  are  a  continuous  parable  of 


1 6  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

spiritual  truth,  worthy  of  their  origin  as  a  message 
from  God  to  man,  is  patent  upon  their  face. 

So  to  him  who  can  see  this  truth  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  indifference  how  far  the  history  of  the 
creation  coincides  with  the  facts  of  modern  science. 
There  are  certain  general  statements  here  made,  of 
even  scientific  accuracy,  which  the  Divine  Mind  has 
used  as  a  basis  for  the  spiritual  parable  it  sought 
to  evolve;  as,  for  instance,  that  the  development 
of  the  earth  proceeded  by  certain  progressive  and 
orderly  steps,  or  that  it  became  successively  pre- 
pared to  bring  forth  certain  forms  of  life — first  the 
lower  grades  of  vegetation,  then  the  higher,  then 
the  fish,  then  the  beasts,  then  man.  But  having  this 
basis,  as  there  was  no  design  on  the  part  of  God  to 
write  a  scientific  treatise,  but  only  to  put  forth  a 
parable,  then  the  filling  in,  the  foims  of  expression, 
the  accompanying  statements,  are  in  purely  sym- 
bolic form  and  style,  without  the  slighest  reference  to 
their  effect  upon  the  literal  meaning  of  the  narrative. 

We  approach  then  this  first  chapter  of  Genesis  as 
we  would  approach  any  other  parable  uttered  by 
the  Lord.  We  assume  that  its  teaching  is  spiritual. 
We  do  this,  because  revelation  is  given  only  for  the 
sake  of  making  known  that  which  is  beyond  the 
natural  powers  of  man  to  attain.  History  and 
science  he  may  gain  for  himself.  He  stands  in  the 
midst  of  them  and  is  a  part  of  them.  Hut  God,  the 


Out  of  tJie  Darkness  into  the  Light.  17 

future  world,  the  science  of  eternal  life,  are  matters 
which  the  natural  mind  can  never  learn  from  the 
natural  wrorld  or  by  natural  education,  and  are  there- 
fore subjects  for  Divine  revelation. 

Asserting  then  that  its  teaching  is  purely  spirit- 
ual, what,  in  the  first  place,  is  the  general  theme  of 
the  parable?  It  is,  outwardly,  an  account  of  the 
creation;  it  must,  therefore,  be  inwardly  an  account 
of  creation  in  some  spiritual  sense. 

What  then  is  spiritual  creation?  Its  nature  is 
revealed  by  the  words  of  David  \vhen  he  said, 
"Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a 
right  spirit  within  me."  There  is  a  creation  of  the 
natural  man,  and  there  is  a  creation  of  the  spiritual 
man.  The  one  causes  us  to  live  naturally,  the 
other  causes  us  to  live  spiritually.  The  apostle 
Paul  alluded  to  the  spiritual  creation  of  the  inward 
man  when  he  said,  "Put  ye  on  the  new  man  which 
is  created  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness;"  and 
also  in  the  words,  "For  we  are  his  (God's)  work- 
manship, created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works." 
Such  men,  he  called  new  creatures,  that  is,  new 
created  beings.  In  this  phrase  he  said  to  the  Cor- 
inthians, 'Therefore  if  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a 
new  creature "  -a  newly  created  being.  He  also 
called  such  "renewed"  in  the  spirit  of  their  minds. 
L:  thus  speaking,  he  did  but  interpret  spiritually 
and  correctly  such  expressions  of  the  Old  Testament 


1 8  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

Scripture  as  these  of  David  :  'The  people  which 
shall  be  created"  -that  is  those  who  are  regener- 
ated or  renewed  in  spirit-  "Shall  praise  the 
Lord.'1  ''Thou  sendest  forth  thy  spirit,  they 
are  created,''  -that  is,  when  the  Lord's  spirit 
comes  to  us  we  are  made  holy  and  righteous. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  terms  "creation, "and  "to 
create,'  have,  in  Scripture  phraseology,  a  spiritual 
meaning.  This  renewal  of  the  heart,  this  cleansing 
of  the  spirit,  this  becoming  a  new  man,  was  termed 
by  our  Lord,  the  rebirth^  or  what  is  the  same,  regen- 
eration. We  have  been  created  or  born  naturally; 
we  are  to  be  created  or  born  spiritually.  Until  this 
second  or  spiritual  birth  takes  place  no  man  has  ful- 
filled his  destiny.  We  have  been  created  natural 
beings  to  live  on  the  earth,  we  are  to  be  created 
spiritual  beings  to  live  there  unto  the  Lord.  This 
was  what  our  Lord  meant  when  He  said,  "Except 
a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

The  term  regeneration,  as  used  by  our  Lord,  (it 
is  a  Latin  word  signifying  rebirth)  expresses  the 
whole  idea.  This  means  that  from  being  worldly 
minded  we  are  to  become  spiritually  minded;  that 
from  being  lovers  of  self  and  the  world  we  are  to 
become  lovers  of  God  and  the  neighbor.  Of  the 
particulars  of  this  change  we  will  learn  more  further 
on.  We  here  only  note  the  truth  that  the  history 


Out  of  the  Darkness  info  ilie  Light.  19 

of  the  creation  as  given  in  the  book  of%  Genesis  is, 
in  its  true  intent  and  meaning,  a  parable  of  regener- 
tion.  Natural  creation  symbolizes  spiritual  crea- 
tion. 

But  creation  is  progressive.  In  this  also  it  is 
made  to  typify  regeneration.  In  another  parable 
our  lyord  has  told  us  how  the  attainment  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  that  is,  the  regeneration  of  the 
soul,  is  a  progressive  work.  It  is  like  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed,  which  a  man — the  Lord — took  and 
sowed  in  the  earth — in  the  human  mind;  which  at 
first  is  the  least  of  all  seeds,  in  that  spirituality  at 
the  beginning  of  our  regeneration  is  very  small,  but 
growing,  becomes  a  great  tree,  in  that  as  regenera- 
tion progresses,  we  become  great  in  spiritual  per- 
ceptions, power  and  goodness. 

Regeneration  then,  being  progressive,  not  a  thing 
of  sudden  attainment, but,  like  a  tree,  of  slow  growth, 
the  six  days  of  creation  represent  the  six  general 
states  of  life  through  which  each  one  has  to  pass 
before  he  becomes  perfect  in  the  sight  of  God. 
The  exact  distinction  between  these  different  stages 
of  spiritual  progress  we  will  understand  better  as 
we  advance  in  the  consideration  of  the  six  days  of 
creation.  Briefly,  we  may  say  here,  however,  that 
it  is  somewhat  like  the  case  of  one  who  learns  a 
trade.  He  must  first  get  a  knowledge  of  the  tools 
he  will  be  required  to  use;  he  must  then  be  taught 


2o  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

their  uses;  one  by  one  he  must  bunglingly  practice 
with  them;  gradually  become  more  skillful  in  their 
exercise;  and  finally  be  able  with  perfect  knowledge 
and  skill,  to  chisel,  hammer,  saw  and  plane,  and 
thus  to  turn  out  at  last,  in  great  variety,  beautiful 
works  of  mechanical  handicraft.  The  regenerating 
person  must  first  learn  truths  of  a  spiritual  nature 
and  their  varieties;  he  must  then  come  into  a  com- 
prehension of  them  and  of  their  superior  nature  and 
beauty;  he  must  then  make  his  first  bungling 
efforts  at  a  spiritual  life;  and,  gradually  growing 
in  an  understanding  and  love  of  spiritual  things,  he 
will  at  last  become  an  intelligent  and  affectionate 
citizen  of  the  kingdom,  living  in  its  spiiit,  and  per- 
forming its  uses  in  the  approval  of  the  Lord.  It  is 
by  slow  degrees  of  advance  only  that  we  come  into 
the  perfect  knowledge  and  practice  of  any  thing; 
and  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  a  spiritual  life, 
or  regeneration,  is  no  exception  to  the  rule. 

But  it  is  said,  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth.'       The  earth  is  a  Scripture 
symbol,  often  predicated  of  man  as  a  spiritual  being, 
or  what  is  the  same,  the  mind  of  man  ;  for  the  mind 
is  the  real  man.     Thus  when  the  Psalmist  cries  out, 
"  The  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice, "   he  cer- 
tainly refers,  not  to  the  planet  on  which  we  stand, 
but  to  the  people  who  live  thereon.     Or  when  Isaiah 
exclaims,  "Hear,  O  heavens,  and  give  ear,  O  earth, 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  the  Light.  21 

for  the  Lord  hath  spoken,"  he  refers  by  the  heavens 
not  to  the  skies  above,  nor  by  earth  to  the  globe  we 
inhabit,  but  by  the  latter  to  the  people  of  the  world, 
and  by  the  former  to  that  within  their  minds  which 
is  sufficiently  heavenly  to  appreciate  what  the  Lord 
may  utter.  In  the  parable  of  the  mustard  seed, 
when  our  Lord  says  that  "the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  like  unto  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  which,  when 
it  is  sown  in  the  earth  is  the  least  of  all  seeds,"  He 
means  that  the  doctrine  of  spiritual  truth,  when  first 
sown  in  the  mind,  is  at  first  to  that  mind  the  least 
of  all  things  in  importance  and  comprehension. 
When  the  Psalmist  says,  "Truth  shall  spring  out  of 
the  earth'  he  does  not  mean  that  truth  grows  like 
a  vegetable  in  the  ground  but  that  it  comes  forth 
from  the  mind  of  man. 

So  earth,  when  used  as  a  Scripture  symbol,  sig- 
nifies man  or  the  mind  of  man,  and  heaven  when 
so  used,  its  spiritual  or  heavenly  degree  or  plane. 
When  they  are  used,  as  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis 
in  juxtaposition,  or  in  antithesis,  the  earth  symbol- 
izes the  earthly,  natural  or  lower  plane  of  the  mind, 
and  the  heaven,  its  heavenly,  spiritual  or  higher 
plane.  In  construing  this  chapter  as  a  parable, 
therefore,  it  must  be  so  done  throughout.  And  as 
the  Lord,  in  giving  his  Word,  would  first  set  forth 
in  parable  the  subject  of  regeneration  or  the  spirit- 
ual re-creation  of  man,  in  its  general  progressive 


22  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

aspects,  He  chose  the  creation  of  the  earth  as  a 
fitting  natural  emblem  whereby  to  express  it.  It 
is  on  the  same  principle  as,  when  He  desired  to  teach 
a  lesson  concerning  the  manner  in  which  our  Lord's 
word  is  implanted  in  the  mind  and  the  different 
mental  soils  in  which  it  is  received,  He  expressed 
it  by  the  correspondence  of  a  sower — the  Lord, 
sowing  seed — implanting  truth,  in  the  earth — the 
mind  of  man.  When  then  it  is  said,  "In  the  begin- 
ning God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth,"  it  is  a 
parable,  and  it  means  that  in  and  from  the  begin- 
ning of  each  one's  individual  career,  the  Lord  seeks 
to  regenerate  his  internal  and  his  external  man,  or 
what  is  the  same,  his  spiritual  and  his  natural  mind; 
in  other  words,  his  heavenly  nature  and  his  earthly 
nature. 

In  and  from  the  very  beginning  God  created 
heaven  and  earth  in  each  one's  nature.  There  is 
no  one  who  does  not  begin  the  career  of  life  with 
something  of  heaven  created  in  him  of  God.  You 
see  that  something  of  heaven  in  the  innocence  of 
the  infant,  in  the  beauty  of  his  infantile  ways,  in 
the  loveliness  of  childhood,  and  in  its  trusting,  guile- 
less character.  What  becomes  of  these  afterward 
is  another  question. 

In  every  child's  mind  there  is  a  heredity  from 
its  natural  parents  and  a  heredity  from  the  Lord. 
The  latter  is  what  gives  him  the  power  of  spiritual 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  the  Light.  23 

regeneration.  But  the  Divine  heredity  is  that  which 
first  asserts  itself  in  the  life  of  the  child.  Sweden- 
borg  says  that  the  highest  and  holiest  of  the  Lord's 
angels  have  in  their  keeping  these  iuitiaments  of 
mind  development  as  they  have  place  at  birth,  and 
on  into  infancy  and  childhood.  Hence  the  hard, 
cruel,  natural  heredity  does  not  rule  in  the  first 
budding  openings  of  the  child's  mental  life.  But 
the  soft,  tender,  loving  implantations  of  the  Lord, 
invisibly  tended  and  nursed  by  his  gentlest  of 
angels,  breathe  around  the  mental  beginnings  of 
one  who  is  destined  for  immortality.  These  sweet 
inseminations  and  breathings,  infused  into  his  first 
conscious  life,  remain  with  him  always.  They  may 
be  covered  and  concealed  by  the  after  developments 
of  his  harsher  nature,  but  they  remain,  nevertheless, 
as  the  basis  upon  which  an  after  life  of  heavenly 
character  may  be  built,  or  as  the  fountain  from 
whence,  when  sin  has  asserted  itself,  and  the 
clouds  of  heart-evil  hang  thick  and  dark  upon  the 
outer  surface  of  the  nature,  fresh  inspirations  of 
heavenly  desire,  and  hope  and  effort,  may  be  drawn. 
These  remains  of  infantile  states  which  are  so  redo- 
lent with  the  perfume  of  heaven,  as  we  will  have 
occasion,  further  on,  to  see,  constitute  the  very  ele- 
ments of  our  after  salvation. 

In    the    beginning    God  created  the   heaven    and 
the   earth.      Place  the  mind  upon  this  as  a  symbolic 


24  The  Payable  of  Creation. 

description  of  the  creation  of  your  own  spiritual 
nature.  God  created  heaven  within  you  and  each 
of  you,  at  the  very  beginning  of  your  exis- 
tence, as  well  as  earth.  It  is  not  said  that  He  created 
the  earth  and  the  heaven  but  "the  heaven  and  the 
earth,1  because  the  heavenly  element  is  developed 
first,  and  then  the  earthly  heredity  manifests  itself. 
Were  the  earthly  developed  first,  the  heavenly  were 
strangled  in  its  very  possibilities,  before  it  had  even 
a  chance  to  gain  a  foothold. 

Next  we  are  told  that  the  earth  ivas  witliout 
form  and  void,  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of 
the  deep.  This  expression,  "withouc  form  and 
void,"  literally  translated  from  the  Hebrew,  would 
be  rendered  "voidness  and  emptiness.'1  How  per- 
fectly this  describes  us  in  the  beginning  of  our  in- 
dividual careers,  before  regeneration  has  set  in.  As 
the  earth  denotes  the  natural  mind,  this  expression 
presents  it  as,  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the  new 
and  spiritual  birth,  void  of  all  real  goodness  and 
empty  of  all  genuine  conceptions  of  spiritual  truth. 
And  here  let  us  observe  also  that  before  one  knows 
a  thing,  no  matter  what  it  is,  he  is  in  darkness  with 
regard  to  it.  .Before  he  understands  it,  the  carpen- 
ter is  in  darkness  as  to  his  trade,  the  artist  as  to  the 
ideas  and  methods  required  to  produce  a  perfect 
picture,  the  musician  as  to  the  laws  of  harmony  and 
the  means  of  evoking  melody.  Mental  darkness 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  the  Light.  25 

is  ignorance  with  regard  to  the  subjects  on  which 
the  mind  needs  enlightenment.  The  mind  is 
always  said  to  be  in  the  dark  with  regard  to  what 
it  does  not  know.  Spiritual  darkness  is  ignorance, 
or  non-comprehension,  of  the  truths  of  heaven  and 
eternal  life.  It  exists  when  the  mind  knows  noth- 
ing of  the  principles  or  the  processes  of  regeneration. 
Then  also  the  subject  takes  no  clear  form  before  the 
understanding.  That  is  to  say,  earth,  or  the  natural 
mind  of  man,  is  without  form  and  void — so  far,  at 
least,  as  holiness  or  righteousness  is  concerned — so 
far  as  the  kingdom  of  God  as  an  appreciable  affec- 
tion or  truth  is  concerned.  A  thick  darkness,  in 
relation  to  these  things,  rests  upon  the  whole  face 
of  the  mental  deeps  of  the  man. 

It  is  true  that  we  are  taught  many  things  concern- 
ing religion  in  childhood.  We  learn  catechisms  and 
Bible  verses.  Parents  instil  into  us  many  religious 
facts,  and  Sabbath  school  teachers  increase  their 
number.  We  are  taught  simple  prayers  and  we 
sing  holy  songs.  Thus  we  learn  the  sacredness  of 
religion,  and  thus  we  begin  to  come  into  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  fact  that  goodness  and  truth  are  of  a 
superior  nature  and  of  a  more  sacred  character  than 
other  things. 

But  before  we  learned  anything  about  these  mat- 
ters we  were  in  total  darkness.  How  dark  is  the 
mind  of  the  infant!  What  does  it  know  of  the  Bible 


26  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

and  religion,  of  the  good  and  the  true,  of  the  love 
of  God  and  man!  So  dark  also  is  the  mind  of  the 
adult  who  has  not  appreciated  what  it  has  been 
taught,  who  reviles  religion,  sneers  at  the  Word  of 
God,  calls  all  conversation  about  higher  things 
hypocritical  cant,  and  lives  for  self  alone.  Thus 
before  regeneration,  in  all  spiritual  aspects,  is  the 
earth  of  man's  mind  without  form  and  void,  and 
thus  does  darkness  dwell  upon  his  mental  deeps. 

And  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the 
waters.  Well;  the  first  thing  that  opens  his  discern- 
ment to  these  matters  is  a  certain  movement  in  his 
mind,  a  certain  dawning  affection  for  the  good,  a  cer- 
tain willingness  to  listen  to  the  true,  a  certain  atten- 
tion excited,  which  springs  not  from  himself  nor  is 
prompted  by  any  solicitations  from  without.  It  is 
an  undefined  sensation.  It  takes  the  form  of  an 
awakening  desire  for  something  higher  than  onehas 
-a  desire  almost  imperceptible  to  himself  so  quietly 
has  it  come.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  God  moving  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters. 

Waters,  in  the  language  of  correspondences,  sig- 
nify truths.  You  know  the  L,ordsaid  to  the  Samar- 
itan woman,  "Whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that 
I  shall  give  him,  it  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life. '  Water  symbolizes 
there  and  every  where  that  Divine  truth  which 
alone  makes  men  wise  unto  salvation.  So  when  the 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  the  Light.  27 

Spirit  of  God  moves  upon  the  face  of  the  waters  in 
the  mind  of  any  one,  it  is  when  those  truths  taught 
in  childhood,  and  stored  up  well  within  the  memory, 
are  awakened^  be  it  to  ever  so  small  a  degree,  by 
the  mercy  of  the  Lord.  That  inward  movement  of 
life  within  the  mind  causes  you  to  see  in  them  what 
you  never  saw  before — their  sacredness,  their  superi- 
ority, their  truth.  When  you  see  this,  it  is  to  you 
as  though  God  uttered  the  fiat,  "Let  there  be  light." 

How  delightful  it  is  to  awaken  to  a  sense  of  com- 
prehension, wherein  you  never  comprehended  before; 
to  see  the  truth  of  that  which  was  previously  but  a 
dull  cloud  upon  the  memory.  Such  an  experience 
has  perhaps  had  place  with  all  of  you. 

Right  here,  some  of  you  have  been  in  much  dark- 
ness with  regard  to  the  true  interpretation  of  Christ- 
ian doctrine.  With  a  fuller  presentation  of  the 
spiritual  side  of  Christian  truth,  your  minds  have 
emerged  from  confusion  and  voidness  into  clear  see- 
ing. God  has  said,  "Let  there  be  light,"  and  to 
you,  in  the  simple  phraseology  of  the  symbol,  ;'the 
light  was."  Or,  to  bring  it  more  home  to  the  lesson 
of  regeneration,  there  was,  perhaps,  a  time  when 
you  saw  nothing  concerning  God  or  good;  when 
spirituality  was  for  you  a  land  of  darkness,  and  your 
mind  was  void  of  real  good  and  empty  of  genuine 
truth.  But  when  God  said,  "Let  there  be  light," 
there  was  light,  and  truth,  in  some  degree,  how- 


28  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

over  small,  then  flashed  across  your  mind,  and  you 
acknowledged  that  there  was  a  God  though  you 
understood  but  little  of  him,  and  you  felt  that  his 
religion  was  sacred  though  your  appreciation  of  the 
fact  was  small. 

That  flash  of  light  was  the  first  beginning  of  your 
regeneration.  And  when  God,  from  his  eternal 
throne,  looked  down  within  the  mind  so  darkened 
once,  and  beheld  his  first  illuminating  ray  break 
through  its  gloomy  shadows,  then  he  saw  the  light 
and  pronounced  it  good.  And  then  He  began  to 
divide  the  light  from  the  darkness.  He  brought  to 
bear  upon  you,  inwardly,  such  influences  as  to  cause 
you  to  make  a  distinction  in  your  mind  between 
present  views  of  truth  and  former  errors,  or  between 
the  good  and  the  evil,  a  thing  not  in  all  respects 
clear  to  you  before;  or  between  a  religious  life  and  a 
worldly  life,  a  life  of  love  to  others  and  a  life  all  love 
of  self;  in  short,  between  the  truth  with  regard  to 
existence  and  its  objects  and  value,  and  the  falsities 
which  before  had  prevailed  with  you,  or  the  ignor- 
ance concerning  it  in  which  you  wrere  steeped. 

And  God  called  the  light  day,  and  the  dark- 
ness he  called  night.  Now  God  calls,  in  the 
Divine  language  of  his  Word,  this  new  state  of  yours, 
this  state  of  light,  the  day;  but  the  former  state  of 
darkness  He  terms  night.  The  night-time  of  the 
soul  is  its  time  of  ignorance  or  falsity;  its  day-time, 
its  condition  of  enlightenment. 


Out  of  the  Dai kness  into  the  Light.  29 

And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  firsl 
day.  The  very  rudimentary  beginnings  of  this 
change  were  as  the  first  gray  tints  of  dawn,  which, 
like  evening  twilights,  though  lighter  than  the  night, 
were  but  shadows  after  all.  Your  first  perceptions  of 
spiritual  things  are  always  indistinct  and  dull.  But 
by  and  by  they  become  clearer  and  clearer  like  an 
ascending  sun  that  ushers  in  the  morn.  It  is  first 
spiritual  evening  on  the  soul;  it  is  then  spiritual 
morning.  A  day,  in  scripture  symbolism,  is  a  state 
of  mind.  This  evening  and  this  morning,  this  first 
breaking  of  the  spiritual  light  upon  the  mind's  dark 
earth,  in  its  beginning  shadowy,  in  its  progressions 
brighter,  constitutes  with  every  one  his  first  state  of 
regeneration. 

How  true  this  is.  All  mental  progress  is  from 
darkness  into  light;  all  spiritual  progress,  from 
evening  unto  morning.  It  matters  not  that  the  light 
now  is  but  a  dim  glimmering  in  comparison  with 
what  it  may  be.  All  success  proceeds  from  first 
steps;  all  achievements  begin  at  the  beginning. 
This  is  only  the  first  day.  There  is  light  beyond 
which  now  would  dazzle  the  eyes.  There  are  con- 
quests beyond  of  which  now  the  soul  does  not  dream. 
The  work  is  only  begun.  There  aie  five  days 
more — five  more  grand  steps  of  ascent  into  the  realm 
of  truly  spiritual  life,  and  then  there  is  rest;  then  the 


30  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

full  blessing  of  the   Lord   descends  upon  the  soul, 
and  heaven  is  won. 

Thus,   the   opening  chapter  of  God's  Word    to 
man  is  an  epitome  of  the  regeneration  of  the  soul- 
a  brief  history  of  the  passing  stages  of  its  upward 
way.     What  could  possibly  be  more  divinely  appro- 
priate?    It  is  not  a  narrative  of   the  creation  of  a 
poor  little  earth  whereon  is  spent   a  mere  point  of 
human  existence  in  its  great  eternity  of  life;  but  it 
is  a  history  of  that  inward  creation  of  a  new    will 
and  understanding,  in  the  .spirit  of  which    the  soul 
shall  live  forever.     How  unworthy  of  any  true  idea 
of  a  message  of  God  to  man  the  one  ;   how  incom- 
parably   beautiful  the    other!      The    Lord's   Word 
was  not  designed  to  chain   our   contemplations  to 
earthly    things — all   that    surrounds   us    here    has 
power  for  that — but  to  wing  the  thought  in  heaven- 
ward ways.      It  carries  us   not  in   the    currents   of 
temporal  things,  but  it  points  to  those  of  true  eter- 
nal interest.      Our  allotted  destiny  is  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  soul.       We  were  born    to    that   end;    we 
are  to  live  in  the  light  of  that  thought;   we    are  to 
pass  on  with  all  preparations  made.     And  will  God 
set  us  down  to  an  imperfect  lesson  in  geology  when 
the  eternal  welfare  of  the  soul  is  at  stake?    Let    us 
arise  out  of  such  wretched  thoughts  concerning  his 
words  of  love,  and  reach  out  for    loftier   aspirations 
in  respect  to  the  wisdom  we  would  ask  from   Him 


Out  of  the  Darkness  into  the  Light. 


and  for  higher  conceptions  of  the  dignity  of  things 
Divine.  So  may  we  study  his  messages  with  some 
apprehension  of  their  grandeur,  and  gain  from  his 
instructions  more  just  ideas  of  true  nobility  of  soul. 


— •-<:  ->«. 


II. 

THE  FIRMAMENT  OF  SPIRITUAL    THOUGHT. 

And  God  sail/,  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  tnid^t  of  the 
waters  and  let  it  divide  t/ie  waters  from  the  waters.  And  God 
made  (he  firmament,  and  divided  the  waters  which  were  under  the 
firmament  from  the  waters  which  wire  above  the  firmament:  and  it 
was  so.  And  God  called  the  firmament  heaven.  And  the  evening 
and  the  morning  were  the  second  day. — Gen.  1 :  6-8. 

THE  previous  lecture  was  devoted  to  a  preliminary 
opening  of  this  subject  of  the  Creation,  as  set  forth 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  We  must  now,  at 
the  risk  of  some  repetition,  review  the  positions  there- 
in assumed,  weaving  in  such  additional  thoughts  as 
will  render  our  further  consideration  of  the  theme 
more  easy  and  clear.  We  must  do  this,  because 
new  ideas  do  not  at  once  readily  establish  themselves 
in  the  mind.  They  may  be  plainly  seen  at  the 
moment,  but  if  not  firmly  fixed  they  are  difficult  to 
reproduce  just  when  they  are  wanted,  or  may  prove 
to  be  so  fleeting  that  they  cannot  again  be  easily 
caught.  It  is  by  repetition  and  re-repetition  that 
they  become  permanent.  Gaining  them  thus  as  our 
own,  we  proceed  with  ease  to  take  further  steps  in 
the  chosen  line  of  investigation  which,  without  such 
preliminary  preparation,  would  be  stupid  or  weari- 
some. 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual  Thought.         33 

The  proposition  was,  in  our  previous  lecture, 
laid  down,  that  when  God  undertakes  to  give  a 
revelation  to  mankind,  his  design  is  to  communicate 
to  them  knowledge  concerning  those  things  which 
they  by  their  natural  powers  have  no  means  of 
learning.  Thus  He  would  not  undertake  to  teach 
man  history,  geography  or  science,  because  these 
are  things  which  he  can  learn  without  revelation 
by  the  exercise  of  his  natural  faculties  of  observa- 
tion, investigation  and  reason.  It  is  also  better 
that  he  should  learn  them  for  himself;  because,  by 
so  doing,  he  developes  his  rationality,  judgment 
and  manhood,  which,  were  all  knowledge  given  im- 
mediately from  the  Lord,  would  remain  undevel- 
oped. The  world  moves  upward  and  onward,  in 
all  natural  progress,  !>y  the  ever  restless  sphere  of 
study,  investigation,  comparison  and  practical  ap- 
pliance. It  is  by  these  methods  that  all  earthly 
things  are  learned,  and  being  learned,  are  reduced 
to  practice,  and  are  applied  to  the  use  and  benefit 
of  mankind.  Thus  whatever  is  necessary  to  happi- 
ness and  comfort,  so  far  as  natural  life  is  concerned, 
is  evolved  and  supplied  by  man  as  of  himself. 

But  there  is  a  world  beyond  this.  Here  we  live 
for  a  few  brief  years;  there  we  dwell  to  eternity. 
There  is  a  God  who  exists  beyond  the  ken  of  mere 
natural  sense.  He  is  the  Author  of  all  things,  while 


34  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

the  greatest  of  men,  so  far  as  they  can  be  said  to 
create  anything,  are  the  authors  of  infinitesimally 
few  things.  Then,  also,  there  is  a  spiritual  life 
which  is  not  deduciblefrom  any  thing  of  the  natural 
world — not  from  reason,  experience  or  science. 
That  spiritual  life,  cultivated  here,  fits  us  to  become 
angels  hereafter  and  to  live  forever  in  heaven. 

Now  these  things  are  beyond  discovery  by  nat- 
ural study  or  deduction.  They  cannot  be  thought 
out  from  any  principles  of  earthly  science,  nor 
evolved  from  any  inner  conciousness  formed  by 
life  in  the  world.  They  can  only  be  learned  by 
revelation  from  God.  Consequently  when  the  Lord 
gives  a  revelation  to  man,  it  is  and  must  be  concern- 
ing these  higher  things  of  which  he  cannot  know  in 
any  other  way.  If  the  Divine  mind  inspire  a  book 
which  shall  be  worthy  of  its  infinite  authorship,  it 
must  teach  us  concerning  God  and  his  nature,  con- 
cerning eternal  life  as  distinguished  from  earthly 
life,  and  concerning  the  means  of  reaching  and  en- 
joying the  highest  blessings  which  that  life  affords. 
It  would  be  derogatory  to  the  Divine  character  to 
attribute  any  other  design  to  the  books  which  form 
the  Word  of  God. 

The  Word  of  God  then  cannot  be  a  book  of  nat- 
ural history  or  science.  It  must  contain,  in  its 
essence,  only  spiritual  truth.  As  history,  it  must 
give  only  a  history  of  the  spiritual  states  of  the 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual   'Ihought.         35 

church  or  man.  If,  therefore,  their  surface  appear- 
ances indicate  that  it  is  something  else,  those  appear- 
ances must  be  false.  The  child  might  imagine  that 
^Ssop's  fables  were  given  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
relating  curious  stories  of  the  conversations  of  birds 
and  beasts  which  took  place  in  the  long  ago,  but 
that  does  not  prove  the  child  to  be  correct.  A  belief 
in  error  never  makes  error  true.  But  the  well  in- 
structed man  knows  better.  He  is  full}7  aware  that 
the  real  design  of  those  fables  is  to  teach  a  lofty 
moral  by  means  of  a  written  story. 

Much  more  is  this  true  of  the  Word  of  God,  of 
which  the  fables  of  ^Esop  are  a  faint  imitation. 
History  is  here  used  not  for  the  history's  sake,  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  spiritual  lesson  which  lies  con- 
cealed within  it.  Geography  is  used,  not  to  give 
any  lessons  concerning  the  relative  situations  of 
the  seas,  rivers  or  lakts,  cities,  countries  or  moun- 
tains of  olden  times,  but  because  of  their  adaptability 
to  expressing  the  relative  spiritual  situations  or 
states  of  men.  An  account  of  creation  is  given,  not 
with  the  idea  of  furnishing  man  with  an  epitome  of 
geological  science,  but  because  it  forms  a  fitting 
dress  for  the  portrayal  of  the  regeneration  of  man. 
As  all  Scripture  is  given  in  parables  and  for  the  sake 
of  its  spiritual  teaching,  a  history  of  creation  must 
be,  in  its  essential  meaning,  a  description  of  the 
creation  and  development  of  the  spiritual  nature 


36  I  he  Parable  of  Creation. 

within  us.  This  is  called  by  our  Lord,  the  rebirth, 
or  regeneration. 

Regeneration  is  not  a  mysterious  term;  it  is 
simply  the  development  of  the  spiritual  nature. 
As  infants  we  are  born  entirely  natural.  At  that 
period  we  are  without  any  knowledge  of  any  kind. 
Our  very  natural  senses  have  to  be  developed.  We 
learn  to  distinguish  objects  one  from  another,  to 
form  sounds  into  words  of  sense,  to  walk,  to  talk, 
only  by  slow  degrees  of  development.  Our  ration- 
ality is  unfolded  by  a  still  slower  process.  It  takes 
us  eighteen  or  twenty  years  to  become  women  or 
men,  either  in  stature,  wisdom,  or  rationality, 

But  having  thus  learned  to  be  natural  men,  we 
have  still  to  learn  to  become  spiritual  men.  This 
also  is  a  slow  development.  Many  never  develop 
on  to  the  spiritual  plane  at  all.  We  have  learned 
to  comprehend  earthly  things;  we  have  still  to  learn 
to  comprehend  spiritual  things.  For  this,  however, 
we  study  no  worldly  history  or  science.  For  this 
we  go  to  the  Word  of  God.  There,  this,  and  this 
only,  is  designed  to  be  taught.  There  we  learn  to 
comprehend  the  Supreme  Being,  so  far  as  the 
finite  mind  can.  God,  who  has  hitherto  been  to  us 
but  a  name,  becomes,  for  the  first  time  now,  a 
revealed  reality.  We  begin  to  look  to  Him,  to  love 
Him  and  to  study  Him.  We  study  the  life  which 
He  would  have  us  lead,  the  spiritual  objects  and 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual   Thought.         37 

motives  for  which  we  should  live,  and  the  genuine 
spiritual  results  we  should  seek  to  attain.  We  put 
these  in  practice;  we  weave  them  into  our  under- 
standings and  lives;  or  rather,  we  use  the  means 
which  the  L,ord  has  provided,  and  the  spiritual 
power  with  which  He  has  furnished  us,  to  do  this. 
We  develop  out  of  worldliness  and  selfishness  into 
angelhood.  We  become  fitted  to  live  in  the  eternal 
mansions  of  the  blessed  in  the  great  hereafter,  and 
to  perform  the  uses  and  live  the  lives  which  will  be 
required  of  us  there.  Regeneration  is  the  process 
through  which  we  pass,  the  work  of  shunning  evils 
as  sins  against  God  which  we  perform,  the  radical 
change  of  will  and  thought,  of  heart  and  mind, 
which  is  made  within  us,  as  we  gradually  emerge 
from  the  low  plane  of  merely  natural  and  sensuous 
existence  to  the  highest  levels  of  life,  which  is 
summed  up  in  a  state  of  love  to  the  Lord  and  the 
neighbor. 

The  history  of  the  creation  is  not  natural  science 
but  spiritual  parable.  It  is  not  a  revelation  of  the 
process  of  the  world's  formation;  it  is  a  spiritual 
account  of  the  re-formation  of  heart  and  mind.  So 
the  six  days  of  creation  represent  the  six  general 
states  through  which  all  regenerating  persons  have 
to  pass.  At  first  our  minds  are  without  form  and 
void,  and  darkness  rests  upon  the  faces  of  their  deeps. 
Totally  so  is  this  the  case  in  infancy.  Not  only  is 


38  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

the  little  one  in  the  dark  as  to  spiritual  knowledge, 
but  as  to  all  knowledge.  Each  man,  woman  or 
child  is  in  the  deepest  darkness  as  to  spiritual 
things,  until  they  begin  to  comprehend  them. 
The  earth,  therefore,  being  a  symbol  of  the  mind  of 
man,  its  being  without  form  and  void,  and  the  dark- 
ness that  rested  on  the  deep,  are  expressions  which 
fitly  represent  the  void  and  formless  state  of  the 
human  mind  and  its  intensely  dark  condition, 
before  the  regeneration  of  the  man  begins. 

Actual  regeneration  commences  when  the  mind 
becomes  enlightened  as  to  the  superiority  of  spirit- 
ual things  over  natural.  Until  this  takes  place 
we  grope  in  utter  darkness.  The  Lord  has  in  con- 
stant view  all  the  affairs  of  each  and  all  of  us, 
from  the  first  moment  of  conception  and  birth  on. 
While  leaving  us  in  freedom,  so  that  we  seem  to  be 
working  along  of  ourselves  and  in  our  own  way, 
He  is  supervising  and  overruling  in  the  very  least 
affairs  of  life.  He  desires  that  we  shall  be  regener- 
ated in  freedom.  No  one  can  be  forced  to  become 
spiritual.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  such 
should  be  the  case.  We  were  not  born  so  to  come 
into  spiritual  life.  That  only  is  part  of  our  nature 
which  we  do  voluntarily.  An  angel  is  an  angel, 
because,  of  his  own  choice,  he  prefers  the  good.  A 
devil  is  a  devil,  because,  of  his  own  choice,  he  pre- 
fers the  evil.  A  man  may  be  forced  not  to  do  out 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual   Thought.         39 

ward  wrong,  but  there  is  no  good  in  him  unless  he 
avoids  the  wrong  in  heart  as  well  as  in  act,  and  that 
of  his  own  free  will. 

On  this  account,  the  Lord,  while  always  leaving 
us  in  freedom,  still  watches  sleeplessly  our  daily 
steps  and  thoughts,  and  places  us  in  such  positions, 
and  surrounds  us  with  such  situations,  and  leads  us 
where  we  will  get  such  and  so  much  instruction,  as 
will  give  us,  each  according  to  his  genius  and 
nature,  the  best  opportunities  to  be  led  into  the 
light  w7ith  regard  to  the  superiority  of  spiritual 
things  over  natural.  This  light  usually  dawns  very 
slowly,  but  when  it  comes,  it  is  to  the  soul  as  the 
fiat  of  God  which  has  said  and  has  long  been  say- 
ing, "Let  there  be  light!" 

So  the  Spirit  of  God  has  been  moving  upon  the 
face  of  the  mind  in  every  effort  that  his  mercy  has 
made  to  lead  us  into  an  acknowledgment  of  these 
grand  truths:  that  God  exists,  that  life  eteinal  is  of 
more  value  than  life  temporal,  that  the  soul  is  of 
greater  concern  than  the  bod}7,  that  spirituality  is 
superior  to  worldliuess.  Then  as  He  has  been  so 
long  whispering,  "Let  there  be  light!"  when  the 
light  comes  He  sees  that  it  is  good.  And  then  also 
He  divides  between  the  light  and  darkness;  that  is 
He  causes  to  arise  in  the  mind  a  clear  distinction 
between  those  false  principles  of  life  which,  as  lovers 
of  the  world,  we  believed  in,  and  those  true  principles 


4O  The  Payable  of  Creation. 

which,  as  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  we  must 
now  acknowledge.  There  is  the  same  distinction 
between  the  false  and  the  true,  the  evil  and  the  good, 
ignorance  and  knowledge,  as  there  is  between 
darkness  and  -light,  and  the  division  between  them 
becomes  sharp  and  clear  cut  only  so  far  as  we  per- 
ceive that  distinction. 

The  first  stage  or  state  of  regeneration,  then,  is 
described,  in  correspondences,  by  the  incidents  of  the 
first  day  of  creation.  It  consists  in  gaining  this 
light,  in  seeing  and  acknowledging  the  superior 
character  of  that  which  is  spiritual,  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  from  God,  and  in  the  distinction,  for  the 
first  time  made  within  our  minds,  between  the  dark 
errors  of  the  merely  natural  and  worldly  state,  and 
the  light  of  dawning  truth  which  has  thus  flashed 
across  the  soul. 

How  long  this  will  last,  whether  we  rest  in  what 
we  have  gained,  or  push  on  for  further  spiritual 
advance,  depends  on  ourselves.  It  must  last  for 
a  while  as  a  first  state,  because  wre  cannot  go  from 
one  stage  of  regeneration  to  another  without  due 
preparation. 

Like  the  child  at  school  who  is  promoted  through 
earnest  study  from  class  to  class,  we  go  from  light 
to  light,  from  strength  to  strength,  from  one  posi- 
tion in  the  kingdom  of  God  to  another;  and  yet  in 
each  stage  of  progress  we  rest  for  a  while,  studying 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual  Thought,         41 

the  situation,  training  our  strength,  confirming  the 
ideas  thus  far  attained,  and  preparing  ourselves  in 
many  ways  to  take  position  on  yet  higher  spiritual 
levels,  and  to  so  perform  this  work  that  we  can 
stand  firmly  there  with  no  danger  of  losing  again 
the  vantage  ground  we  have  thus  far  gained.  Not 
that  we  do  this  consciously  or  think  to  ourselves, 
"I  am  doing  thus  and  so  in  order  to  promotion  to  a 
higher  class  in  the  ethics  and  life  of  the  kingdom,' 
but  that  it  is  so  effected  unconsciously  to  ourselves. 
Really  and  truly  it  is  the  Lord  who  does  it  all, 
because  He  is  the  instructor,  overseer  and  promot- 
ing agent  in  the  entire  work,  and  we  are  never  out 
of  his  sight  or  from  under  his  watchful  care  for  a 
single  moment. 

Due  preparation  thus  being  made  then,  due  spirit- 
ual strength  gained,  we  arise  into  a  new  state — a 
second  stage  of  regenerative  experience.  This  is 
typified  in  the  biblical  narrative  by  the  second  day 
of  creation. 

And  God  said,  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the 
midst  of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from 
the  waters.  And  God  made  the  firmament,  and 
divided  the  waters  which  ivere  iinder  the  firmament 
from  the  waters  which  were  above  the  firmament:  and 
it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  firmament  Heaven. 

We  must  remember  that  the  first  stage  of  spirit- 
ual progress  out  of  the  void  and  the  dark,  was  a 


42  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

coming  into  the  dawning  light  of  spiritual  day. 
It  was  only,  however,  a  confused  and  general 
acknowledgment  of  the  importance  of  eternal  things. 
But  now  there  is  a  firmament  created,  and  that  fir- 
mament is  called  heaven.  Naturally  our  minds 
revert  to  the  skies  above.  But,  naturally  speaking, 
sky  is  only  empty  space.  It  may  be  filled  with 
auras  or  ethers  or  still  more  delicate  forms  of  aeri- 
form matter;  but  there  is  no  flat  surface  called 
sky,  like  a  great  dome,  painted  blue,  grey  or  black. 
So  the  idea  of  waters  beneath  the  firmament  may 
take  the  form  of  tangible  thought,  but  that  of  waters 
above  the  firmament  by  no  possibility;  for  there  is 
110  such  thing  as  above  the  sky;  it  is  sky  all  the  way 
through  into  the  remotest  depths  of  spacial  immen- 
sity. 

We  must  leave  behind  all  natural  ideas  here,  and 
remember  that  we  are  considering  a  spiritual  para- 
ble. In  this  sense  the  allusion  is  to  the  firmament 
of  the  mind — its  heavenly  regions,  those  elevated 
realms  of  will  and  understanding  which  can  think 
of,  comprehend  and  love  heavenly  or  spiritual 
things. 

Mental  philosophers  have  long  ago  observed  and 
classified  the  different  faculties  of  the  mind.  We 
know  that  the  mathematical  faculty  does  not  enable 
us  to  sing,  nor  the  musical  faculty  run  the  mental 
machinery  which  performs  intricate  arithmetical 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual  Thought.         43 

problems.  We  know  that  the  poetic  faculty  does 
not  build  machines,  nor  the  mechanical  faculty 
write  poetry.  Each  faculty  does  its  own  work,  and 
when  it  becomes  a  controlling  quantity,  it  gives 
tone  to  the  whole  character  of  the  man. 

But  these  are  all  of  the  natural  mind.  They  do 
the  work  of  this  world,  each  in  its  own  sphere. 
Ascending  above  them,  on  a  higher  mental  plane, 
there  is  a  faculty  which  takes  note  of  what  is  above 
nature.  It  is  the  spiritual  faculty  or  ir.ind.  When 
this  degree  or  faculty  is  in  conscious  activity,  we 
think  of,  and  interest  ourselves  in,  spiritual  things. 
We  leave  all  earthly  affairs— its  business,  its  fashions, 
its  domestic  duties,  its  pleasures,  and  we  soar  away 
into  thoughts  of  the  supernal.  Here  comes  in  our 
acknowledgment  of,  and  affection  for,  God.  Here 
we  comprehend  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  see 
the  certainty  of  a  never-ending  life  beyond  the 
grave.  Here  we  contemplate  the  exceeding  loveli- 
ness of  a  spiritual  life,  of  all  those  commands  which 
lead  to  it,  of  those  states  of  mind  which  grow  happy 
in  its  presence.  Here  we  love  good  and  hate  evil. 
Here  we  reflect  upon  the  goodness  of  the  Lord  and 
realize  our  trust  in  Him.  Here  we  worship,  praise 
and  pray.  Here  is  our  soul's  heaven  above;  while 
worldly  thoughts  and  states  are  our  earth  beneath, 
This  is  the  firmament  which  previous  to  the  begin- 
ning of  our  regeneration,  when  our  mind  was  void 


44  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

and  dark,  we  caught  not  a  glimpse  of,  and  in  its 
first  stage,  when  we  were  rejoicing  in  our  early 
dawnings  of  light,  we  did  not  lift  our  eyes  to. 

But  now  there  comes,  as  it  were,  another  silent 
voice  of  God,  saying,  "  Let  there  be  a  firmament.'1 
And  God  made  the  firmament  and  called  it  heaven. 
In  other  words,  Let  the  regenerating  man  now  see 
that  he  has  a  heavenly  region  or  faculty  of  mind  ; 
let  him  perceive  that  he  can  withdraw  himself  from 
earth  and  earthly  things  and  dwell  in  those  above; 
let  him  realize  that  he  is  of  a  double  nature  and  is 
possessed  of  a  double  mind,  one  degree  of  which  is 
for  the  performance  of  his  allotted  part  on  earth, 
the  other  for  his  preparation  for  heaven;  one  by 
means  of  which  he  earns  his  daily  bread,  the  other, 
within  whose  quiet  realms  he  communes  with  God; 
one  which  renders  him  a  natural  man  for  the  world's 
natural  work,  the  other  which  renders  him  a  spirit- 
ual man,  and  an  heir  of  an  eternal  kingdom,  whose 
wisdom,  love  and  happiness  as  far  exceed  the 
earthly  as  light  exceeds  darkness,  as  heaven  ex- 
ceeds earth. 

When,  in  the  parable,  we  read  the  expression, 
"And  God  said,'1  we  must  not  imagine  that  an 
audible  Divine  voice  resounded  through  space,  bear- 
ing those  words  through  its  vast  immensity.  We 
must  avoid  all  literal  ideas  as  we  would  success- 
fully grasp  the  spiritual  purport.  The  voice  of 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual  Thought.         45 

God  is  the  Divine  dictate  to  the  heart.  It  is  as 
silent  as  the  sunbeam  that  commands  verdure  from 
the  earth,  bids  the  flower  mantle  itself  in  red  or 
blue  or  gold,  and  says  to  the  spreading  branches  of 
the  tree,  "Be  laden  with  fruit.'  When,  then,  the 
earth  is  in  a  condition  to  receive  and  respond  to  the 
solar  rays,  it  may  be  said  to  hear  the  commands  of 
its  golden  monitor,  the  sun — to  listen  to  his  voice. 
A  poet,  tracing  the  departure  of  winter,  as  winter 
is  in  more  frozen  climes  than  this,  thus  wrote: 

Spring  came  at  last,  with  her  vernal  train 
Of  balmy  breezes  and  rainbow  showers; 

And  the  sun  upsprung  in  the  sky  again, 

And  looked  upon  earth  which  so  long  had  lain 
Denuded  of  verdure  and  flowers; 

And  he  sai  1,  O  earth!  be  clothed  once  more- 
CD  flowers  !  your  bridal  colors  don, 

And  lo,  as  he  spake,  from  shore  to  shore, 

The  earth  was  mantled  in  robes  of  green, 

And  blossoms  of  every  hue  were  seen, 
Called  forth  by  the  voice  of  the  sun. 

The  poets  see  these  things  in  clearer  light  than 
do  the  theologians.  It  is  because  they  frequently 
use  the  figures  of  the  Bible.  The  voice  of  the  sun 
that  bids  the  earth  rejoice  they  know  to  be  a  very 
silent  one.  It  consists  of  solar  power  working  in 
realms  ready  to  respond  to  its  voiceful  influence. 

So  when  the  heart  is  open  to  Divine  influences, 
they  silently  steal  in  and  warm  it  up  to  a  livelier 


46  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

appreciation  of  the  beautiful  and  good;  and  a  sense 
of  yearning  for  something  better  than  all  this  selfish 
toil  and  trouble  thrills  through  its  every  energy, 
and  a  ray  of  light  flashes  through  the  mind  giving 
it  to  comprehend  somewhat  of  those  better  things 
and  that  better  way  for  which  the  heart  has  yearned. 
It  is  the  voice  of  God.  No  sound  is  heard.  It  is 
recognized  only  in  the  form  of  a  gentle  influence, 
whose  Divine  forces  would  lead  us  to  things  above 
our  place  of  standing. 

We  shall  have  occasion,  in  our  consideration  of 
this  history  of  the  Creation,  to  read  this  expression 
quite  often-  'And  God  said,' ;  so  let  us  be  sure 
that  we  understand  it  well.  Its  meaning  in  every 
instance  is,  "There  was  a  dictate  of  God  to  the 
heart." 

So  also  when  the  parable  giving  forth  the  voice 
of  God,  says,  "  Let  there  be!"  it  means,  "Let  there 
be  developed, ':  or  Let  it  come  to  the  consciousness 
of  the  regenerating  individual.  And  when  it  says, 
"  And  God  so  made  it,'  it  means,  "  And  God  so 
developed  it  or  brought  it  to  his  consciousness.'1 
So  the  creation  of  the  firmament  which  God  is  said 
to  have  made,  is,  from  the  spiritual  idea,  the  bring- 
ing to  man's  consciousness  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
firmament,  a  heaven,  a  higher  region  of  the  mind, 
an  elevated  facult}^  of  living  and  doing,  which  is 
above  earthly  thoughts  and  its  vanities,  earthly  love 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual   Thought.         47 

and  its  stains,  and  earthly  life  and  its  delusions. 
This  opening  of  the  spiritual  mind  constitutes  the 
essential  feature  of  the  second  stage  of  regeneration. 

I  speak  of  the  opening  of  the  spiritual  mind,  or 
the  bringing  to  our  consciousness  the  truth  that 
we  possess  such  a  faculty.  Do  not  let  us  leave  this 
expression  involved  in*mystery.  I  use  it  in  the 
same  manner  that  I  would  speak  of  any  other 
faculty. 

The  child  is  born  with  full  capabilities  and  possi- 
bilities, and  these  in  great  variety,  limited  only  to 
the  peculiarities  of  his  genius.  These  are  to  be 
opened,  strengthened  and  developed.  It  is  the 
object  for  which  he  is  brought  into  existence.  And 
this  opening  and  development  is  by  and  through 
his  surroundings  as  assisting  means.  Thus,  he  is 
born  with  the  possibilities  of  walking  and  talking. 
But  the  power  of  using  the  tongue,  lirs  and  palate 
in  the  formation  of  words  comes  through  the  slow 
strengthening  and  development  of  the  muscles  of 
those  organs  by  the  constant  effort  to  use  them  in 
speech.  Parallel  with  this,  the  powers  of  the  mind 
unfold  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  attach  rational  mean- 
ings to  words,  as  fast  as  the  ability  to  form  them  pro- 
ceeds. Thus  also  the  power  of  walking  comes  from 
incipient  possibilities  opened  and  developed  into  act- 
ual realities,  by  gradually  through  the  use  of  the 
limbs  gaining  strength,  and  by  slowly  unfolding  the 


48  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

facility  of  equilibrium,  or  of  being  able  to  balance  the 
body  without  effort.  All  the  possibilities  of  physi- 
cal power  exist  in  the  infant.  All  the  muscles, 
nerves,  tendons,  or  whatever  may  be  necessary,  are 
there,  only  they  are  undeveloped  as  yet.  They  need 
but  to  be  unfolded  and  strengthened  in  order  to  the 
full  attainment  and  possession  of  all  their  great  pos- 
sibilities and  uses.  And  just  so  it  is  with  the  mental 
or  intellectual  faculties.  The  imitative,  comparing 
and  reasoning  powers,  as  yet  only  in  embryo  in  the 
child,  come  forth  by  gradual  unfoldings  to  their 
fullest  fruitions.  And  they  develop  in  infinite  variety 
according  to  the  differing  forms  of  education  with 
different  individuals,  or  in  harmony  with  their  vary- 
ing kinds  of  genius.  In  one  the  mechanical  faculties 
become  prominent;  in  another  the  mathematical;  in 
others  the  mercantile,  the  artistic,  the  political,  the 
musical,  the  poetical,  the  linguistic,  and  so  on  in  end- 
less variety.  They  all  exist  at  birth  in  different 
degrees  of  possibility,  according  to  the  peculiar 
genius  of  the  individual;  they  only  need  opening 
and  developing. 

These,  however,  are  of  the  natural  mind.  But 
there  exists  a  still  higher  range  of  faculties — the 
spiritual.  They  are,  as  we  might  say,  distinctly 
above  the  others,  as  those  are  above  the  merely 
physical.  The  natural  mind  may  develop  without 
limit  on  the  range  of  its  purely  natural  faculties. 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual   Thought.         49 

One  after  another  of  them  may  be  opened  and  devel- 
oped, and  the  individual  enter  into  large  possession 
of  their  wonderful  powers,  and  yet  have  no 
spiritual  capacity.  A  prize  fighter  may  strengthen 
his  physical  powers  to  a  marvelous  degree  and  yet 
possess  little  intellectual  development.  The  merely 
natural  man  may  be  intellectual  in  every  worldly 
sense — a  keen  reasoner,  an  apt  logician,  a  profound 
student,  a  mechanic,  a  poet,  an  artist,  a  musician- 
and  yet  be  utterly  unable  to  grasp  a  spiritual  truth. 
His  spiritual  mind  is  unopened,  or,  if  partially 
opened,  undeveloped.  It  is,  therefore,  utterly 
impossible  to  cause  an)T  one  to  see  a  spiritual  truth, 
or  to  understand  the  difference  between  a  spiritual 
life  and  a  merely  natural  one,  whose  spiritual  facul- 
ties are  unawakened,  unopened,  unstrengthened,  or 
undeveloped. 

But  the  more  they  are  opened  the  further  they 
can  see  in  this  regard;  while  the  less  they  are 
opened  the  less  they  can  see.  The  spiritual  possi- 
bilities are  born  with  every  one.  The  spiritual 
mind,  in  its  rudiments  at  least,  exists  with  all,  just 
as  certainly  as  does  the  natural.  It  is  as  certain 
that  one  may  become  spiritually  intelligent  and  liv- 
ing, as  that  he  may  walk  and  talk  or  as  that  he  may 
learn,  on  the  natural  plane  of  things,  to  imitate, 
reason  and  compare.  Yes,  it  is  precisely  as  Paul 
says:  "The  natural  man  (that  is,  the  natural  mind), 


50  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God;  for 
they  are  foolishness  unto  him;  neither  can  he  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. ' :  How 
can  one  understand  spiritual  things  when  the  spirit- 
ual mind  or  faculty  has  not  been  as  yet  developed? 

Well,  in  this  beautiful  parable  of  the  Creation- 
this  history  of  the  gradual  unfolding  of  the  spiritual 
nature,  the  creation  or  development  of  the  firma- 
ment sets  forth  the  development  of  the  spiritual 
mind.  It  is  evidently  an  all-important  stage  in 
the  process  of  regeneration;  for  as  there  can  be  no 
physical  strength  until  the  muscle  is  developed, 
and  no  rationality  until  the  rational  mind  is  un- 
folded, what  can  there  be  of  spiritual  thought,  dis- 
cernment or  love  until  the  spiritual  mind  is  opened? 

Waters,  as  we  learned  in  the  previous  discourse, 
are  symbols  of  truths.  The  living  waters  which  our 
Lord  offered  to  the  Samaritan  woman  was  the  liv- 
ing truth  He  came  to  deliver  to  a  fallen  world. 
The  water  to  which  reference  is  made  in  Isaiah 
where  it  is  said,  "With  jo\^  shall  3-6  draw  water 
from  the  wells  of  salvation,"  was  the  spiritual  truth 
which  our  Lord,  when  he  came,  would  teach  them 
to  draw  from  the  Word  of  God.  The  river  of  water 
of  life,  which  was  seen  by  John,  in  his  vision  of  the 
holy  Jerusalem,  to  proceed  from  the  throne  of  God, 
and  which  watered  the  tree  of  life,  was  a  spiritual 
figure  of  truth  as  coming  from  the  Lord  to  man, 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual  Thought.         51 

and  nourishing  -within  his  heart  that  tree  of  life 
which  is  the  love  of  God.  And  so  it  goes  on 
through  the  entire  Scripture.  Waters  correspond 
to  the  eternal  truths  of  God. 

As  the  firmament  signifies  the  spiritual  mind, 
what  is  under  the  firmament  means  all  that  is 
beneath  the  spiritual;  in  other  words,  that  is  worldly 
and  natural.  The  waters  under  the  firmament, 
then,  are  holy  truths  as  they  exist  in  the  external  or 
natural  mind;  the  waters  above  the  firmament  are 
the  same  truths  as  they  exist  in  the  spiritual  or  in- 
ternal mind.  From  early  childhood  on  we  learn 
truths  concerning  heaven  and  eternal  life.  Amid 
our  worst  surroundings  we  get  them  somehow  or 
in  some  way.  Amid  better  surroundings  we  learn 
of  them  even  by  the  common  conversation  of  play- 
mates. We  hear  of  God  as  the  Maker  of  all  things, 
and  of  heaven  as  the  place  where  we  go  if  we  are 
good.  We  learn  of  the  sacredness  of  the  Sabbath. 
If  we  go  to  Sunda3'--school  or  if  we  have  God-fearing 
parents,  we  are  taught  much  more  than  this,  besides 
little  prayers,  Scripture  texts  and  Bible  stories;  and 
the  sacred  influences  of  church  worship  cling  to  us 
ever  closely.  All  we  thus  learn  goes  at  least  into 
the  memory,  even  though  it  affects  us  but  little, 
even  though  when  we  come  to  adult  age,  we  care 
little  for  it,  or  worse  yet,  are  skeptical  with  regard 
to  it.  These  truths  have  become  implanted  in  the 


52  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

natural  mind  and  memory,  and  do  as  we  will, 
or  think  with  reference  to  them  what  we  may,  they 
cannot  be  wiped  out.  They  are  the  waters  under 
the  firmament. 

But  when  we  come  to  perceive  the  difference 
between  the  spiritual  and  the  natural;  when  we 
come  to  recognize  our  ability  to  view  things  spirit- 
ually and  from  a  spiritual  standpoint,  then  these 
truths,  which  before  were  matters  of  memory  and 
not  of  life,  names  without  understood  qualities, 
sentences  with  no  adhering  meaning — then  these 
truths  become  living,  glowing  verities  to  us. 

The  fog  when  it  rests  upon  the  earth  has  little 
effect  upon  the  growth  of  its  wheat  fields  and  gar- 
dens, but  let  it  rise  into  the  canopy  above,  gather 
into  cloud,  and  drop  in  the  form  of  rain,  and  all 
earth  springs  at  once  into  new  beauty  and  bloom. 
So  the  Lord's  truths  when  held  in  its  embrace  by 
the  natural  mind  are  mere  words  and  forms  of  ex- 
pression, from  whence  no  spiritual  growth  proceeds. 
But  let  them  be  elevated  into  the  spiritual  mind, 
where  they  are  spiritually  received,  understood  and 
rejoiced  in,  and  they  give  the  eternal  freshness  of 
spring  to  life  in  all  its  varieties  and  degrees,  from 
the  spiritual  above  to  the  earthly  below. 

So  when  we  can  see  the  difference  between 
religious  truths  as  mere  words  and  statements,  and 
the  same  truths  as  a  realized  joy;  between  the  truths 


The  Firmament  of  Spiritual  Thought.         53 

of  God  as  lifeless  forms  of  expression  and  the  same 
truths  as  the  sweet  refreshment  of  the  inner  life, 
then  a  division  has  been  made  for  us  between  the 
waters  which  are  under  the  firmament  and  those 
which  are  above  the  firmament,  and  the  second  stage 
of  regeneration  becomes  for  us  a  pronounced  reality. 

It  is  from  evening  to  morning  again;  from  a  state 
of  comparative  spiritual  twilight  to  one  of  new 
dawning  brightness.  Always  from  evening  to 
morning!  How  much  more  lovely  than  to  have  it 
from  morning  to  evening!  In  that  case  our  move- 
ment would  be  from  light  into  obscurity.  But  the 
regenerative  progress  is  always  from  comparative 
obscurity  into  comparative  light. 

So  the  Lord  has  given  us  the  light  which  revealed 
to  us  the  superiority  of  spiritual  things.  That  was 
our  first  step.  Now  He  has  opened  to  our  con- 
sciousness and  our  enjoyment  the  internal  or  spirit- 
ual mind — that  degree  or  faculty  which  can  grasp 
and  enjoy  spiritual  ideas.  And  he  has  also  ren- 
dered clear  to  us  the  distinction  between  natural 
views  of  things  and  spiritual;  that  is,  between  life 
and  truth  as  the  natural  mind  views  them  and  the 
same  as  seen  by  the  spiritual  mind.  This  is  the 
second  step.  Here,  in  the  firmament  above,  in  the 
spiritual  man,  is  where  we  build  our  heaven.  Earth 
in  itself,  earthly  thought  and  earthly  love,  is  no 
heaven.  God  does  not  call  it  so.  But  when  the 


54  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

mind's  firmament,  its  realm  of  spiritual  thought,  is 
opened  to  our  consciousness,  that  becomes  our 
heaven  of  retreat  from  all  that  is  gross  and  sensual, 
from  evil  and  from  sin,  from  disorder,  confusion 
and  unrest,  and  there  we  can  make  our  preparations 
for  a  higher  ascent  still  on  the  ever  upward-sloping 
path  of  regeneration. 


"oG 


III. 

THE  FIRST  FRUITS  OF  SPIRITUAL   LIFE. 

And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under  the  heavens  be  gathered 
together  in  one  p-!at\ ,  and  let  the  d>y  land  appear ;  and  it  zvas  so. 
And  God  called  the  dry  land  Earth:  and  the  gathering  together  of 
the  waters  called  He  Seas  ;  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 

God  said,  Let  the  eaith  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed, 
and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit  after  his  kind t  :i<hose  seed  is  in  it- 
self vpon  the  earth  :  and  if  was  *o.  And  the  earth  bt  ought  forth 
grass,  and  herb  yielding  seed  after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding 
/'nit,  whose  seed  was  in  itself  after  his  kind;  and  God  saw  that  it 
was  good .  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  third  day. 

—Gen.  i :  9-13. 

For  OUT  natural  education  we  look  to  parents  and 
teachers,  for  our  spiritual  education  we  go  to  the 
Lord.  Instruction  concerning  natural  things  we 
draw  from  text  books  supplied  by  human  learning, 
but  spiritual  instruction  is  obtained  only  from  that 
book  of  Divine  revelation  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  the  Bible.  It  is  a  mistake  to  look  for  religion 
in  a  work  purely  scientific  which  has  been  wrought 
out  by  natural  observation  and  deduction;  but  it  is 
an  error  much  more  serious  to  seek  for  natural  learn- 
ing in  a  volume  that  has  been  revealed  by  the  Lord 
for  spiritual  purposes  alone.  In  the  one  case  we 
simply  go  for  information  to  an  incompetent  author- 
ity, but  in  the  other  we  are  belittling  the  Word  of 


56  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

God  in  ascribing  to  it  a  character  no  higher  than 
that  which  is  possessed  by  the  words  of  men.  If  the 
Bible  has  any  purpose  at  all  it  is  one  that  is  spiritual. 
If  it  has  an  educational  mission  of  any  kind,  it  is 
one  that  is  religious.  If  it  is  the  Word  of  God,  we 
are  to  look  for  this  spiritual  element  in  all  its  parts 
— in  every  chapter,  verse  and  line. 

The  purpose  of  the  Lord  in  inspiring  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  was  to  give  an  account  of  the 
general  principles  according  to  which  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  human  mind  proceeds.  By  regeneration 
we  mean  that  new  birth  of  the  soul  which  is  its  de- 
velopment from  a  merely  natural, into  a  lofty  spirit- 
ual condition — that  gradual  putting  away  of  its 
selfishness  and  worldliness  which  gives  it  a  higher, 
nobler  and  purer  nature  in  accordance  with  the 
ideals  set  up  by  our  Lord.  The  Scripture  treats  of 
this,  in  some  manner,  in  all  its  parts.  Where  the 
lesson  is  not  obvious  on  the  surface  it  lies  concealed 
within  the  narrative;  and  thus  the  letter  becomes  a 
parable  of  higher  truth. 

Upon  this  principle  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis 
also  is  found  to  treat  concerning  spiritual  things. 
It  matters  not  that  the  surface  appearance  may  be 
otherwise,  a  close  analysis  reveals  that  fact.  Under 
the  similitude  of  earth's  creation  is  unfolded  the 
progressive  order  in  which  the  development  of  the 
spiritual  nature  of  each  of  us  all  goes  on — the 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life,  57 

successive  steps  by  which  we  proceed  forward  to  the 
realization  of  our  highest  possibilities.  The  biblical 
account  of  the  creation  is  then  a  parable  of  the  re- 
generation of  the  human  mind  and  heart.  It  is 
written  according  to  the  universal  method  of  Divine 
narrative,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  law  of  correspon- 
dence or  sacred  symbolism.  These  things  were 
dwelt  upon  at  length  in  the  preceding  discourses  of 
this  series:  here  we  can  do  little  more  than  allude 
to  them. 

I  will  repeat  also  in  very  brief  form  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  narrative  as  thus  far  considered.  I  do 
this  both  for  the  information  of  those  who  were  not 
present  on  the  two  previous  evenings,  and  for  the 
sake  of  keeping  up  the  connection  of  ideas  with 
those  who  were. 

The  earth  is  a  symbol  of  the  human  mind.  It  is 
so  used  by  the  Lord,  both  here  and  elsewhere,  be- 
cause of  the  beautiful  correspondence  between  the 
earth  as  the  germinating  receptacle  of  seed  and  the 
mind  as  the  fertile  soil  wherein  the  truths  of  God 
are  sown.  The  earth  brings  forth  vegetation  of 
every  kind,  which  proceeds  from  the  first  tender 
signs  of  life  to  blade,  stalk,  leaf,  tree,  flower  and 
fruit.  In  like  manner,  the  mind,  having  received 
and  nurtured  the  seeds  of  spiritual  knowledge, 
brings  them  forth.  Its  mental  germinations  are 
first  of  the  memory,  then  of  reflection,  then  of  rea- 


5 8  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

son,  then  of  love,  until  the  full  fruits  of  a  rich  spirit- 
ual life  are  brought  to  maturity. 

The  Sacred  Scripture  makes  use  of  this  symbol 
in  all  its  parts.  When  the  Psalmist  exclaims  to 
the  Lord,  "All  the  earth  shall  worship  thee,  and 
shall  sing  unto  thee,':  it  is  meant  that  all  the  minds 
shall  so  worship  and  sing.  When  he  says  that 
"the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord,"  he  means  that  the  minds  of  his  people  shall 
be  filled  with  that  knowledge.  And  so  our  Lord, 
in  teaching  that  regeneration,  or  the  development 
of  the  mind  on  spiritual  lines,  is  a  gradual  work, 
calls  the  mind  of  man  the  earth  "which  bringeth 
forth  fruit;  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear. ' : 

The  symbol  as  used  in  Genesis  is  the  same.  The 
creation  of  the  earth  is  a  parable  of  the  regeneration 
of  the  mind.  At  first — so  the  narrative  reads — the 
earth  is  a  mere  voidness  and  emptiness,  and  dark- 
ness is  on  the  face  of  the  deep;  that  is,  the  mind  of 
man,  before  regeneration  begins,  is  formless  and 
void  as  to  genuine  goodness  and  truth,  and  the 
darkness  of  ignorance  in  reference  to  spiritual  things 
rests  upon  its  deeps. 

As  the  great  feature  of  the  first  day  of  creation 
was  the  fiat  of  God— "Let  there  be  light  !"  so  the 
main  feature  of  the  first  stage  of  regeneration  is  the 
dispersion  of  the  mind's  ignorance  and  its  obtain- 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  59 

ment  of  somewhat  of  light.  The  first  dawn  of 
light  would  consist,  perhaps,  only  of  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  Lord  and  of  the  superior  nature  of 
spiritual  things  as  compared  with  those  which  are 
merely  natural.  As  without  light  earth  could  not 
have  progressed  into  a  condition  where  vegetation 
were  possible,  so  without  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
Lord  and  of  the  superiority  of  heavenly  things  to 
worldly — without  some  light  upon  spiritual  subjects, 
there  can  be  no  growth  of  the  higher  mind,  no 
developments  into  nobler  life,  no  flowers  of  the 
soul,  no  fruits  of  a  religious  spirit. 

And  as  the  great  feature  of  the  second  day  of 
creation  was  the  development  of  the  firmament  of 
heaven,  and  the  division  of  the  waters  which  were 
under  the  firmament  from  those  which  were  above; 
so  the  essential  feature  of  the  second  state  of  the 
progress  of  the  regenerating  person  is  the  opening 
of  the  firmament  of  the  mind — its  higher  realm — its 
spiritual  degree  or  faculty,  whereby  it  is  able  to 
know,  think  and  converse  intelligently  about  spirit- 
ual things.  The  firmament  of  the  narrative  was 
called  heaven  ;  the  mind's  firmament  is  the  region 
where  heavenly  thoughts  prevail.  Waters  we 
found  to  be  symbols  of  truths.  The  Divine  truth 
presents  itself  in  the  beginning  of  this  narrative  in 
two  symbolic  aspects — as  light  and  as  water.  Light 
symbolizes  truth  as  illuminating  the  mind;  water 


60  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

symbolizes  truth  as  bedewing,  fertilizing  and  re- 
freshing the  mind.  The  waters  under  the  firma- 
ment of  heaven  are  truths  concerning  spiritual 
things  as  they  are  held  by  the  natural  mind, beneath 
the  arena  of  spiritual  comprehension,  heard  per- 
haps, remembered  as  forms  of  words  or  unheeded 
expressions,  scripture  sentences  even,  carefully 
stored  away  in  the  memory, but  under,  not  elevated 
into  the  firmament  or  heaven  of  the  mind's  spiritual 
degree.  The  waters  above  the  firmament  are  the 
same  truths  elevated  into  spiritual  apprehension- 
lifted  up  into  that  region  of  the  mind  which  discerns 
spiritual  things.  It  is  there  that  the  distinction  be- 
tween what  is  natural  and  what  is  spiritual  begins 
to  be  seen.  It  is  there  that  the  division  of  the 
waters  takes  place. 

The  first  state  of  regeneration,  therefore,  as  sym- 
bolized by  the  first  day  of  creation,  is  light  let  in 
upon  the  mind  as  to  the  superiority  of  spiritual 
knowledge  and  life  over  natural;  the  second  is  the 
opening  of  the  spiritual  mind,  or  of  the  faculty 
which  discerns  things  spiritually. 

Clearly,  so  long  as  one  refuses  to  recognize  at  all 
the  beauty  of  spiritual  knowledge  or  life,  he  cannot 
enter  upon  the  regeneration.  When  he  does  this 
he  can  make  no  further  progress  until  his  power  of 
understanding  spiritual  truth  is  developed.  For 
then  first  he  is  able  to  see  the  distinction  between 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  61 

his  spiritual  mind  or  nature  and  his  natural,  be- 
tween love  of  self  and  the  world  and  love  of  God 
and  man,  between  essential  evil  and  essential  good. 
Well  settled  preliminaries  are  necessary  to  progress. 
So  soon  as  one  can  make  these  distinctions,  and  not 
before,  he  is  ready  to  proceed  further. 

Let  us  now  pass  on  to  a  consideration  of  the  third 
state  or  stage  of  regeneration  as  set  forth  in  the 
sacred  symbols  of  the  narrative. 

"And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  be  gathered  to- 
ge.lier  in  one  place  and  let  the  dry  land  appear.' 
The  allusion  here  is  not  to  the  waters  above  the 
firmament,  but  to  those  beneath.  Waters,  as  we 
have  seen,  signify  divine  truth.  The  waters  under 
the  firmament  we  have  found  to  signify  those  truths 
as  mere  forms,  expressions  or  remembered  texts, not 
spiritually  realized  or  understood. 

It  is  easy  for  one  to  have  a  knowledge  of  what  he 
does  not  understand.  The  blind  man  may  know 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  light,  because  he  has 
often  heard  it  spoken  of.  So  many  have  spoken  of 
it  within  his  hearing  that  he  even  believes  in  its 
existence.  But  what  does  he  understand  or  realize 
concerning  it  when  he  has  never  seen  it  ?  So,  a 
child  may  be  taught  that  there  is  a  God.  Perhaps 
he  firmly  believes  it  because  he  has  been  so  often 
told  so.  But  what  does  he  comprehend  concerning 
the  infinite  existence  of  God — his  love,  mercy,  wis 


62  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

dom,  majesty  ?  What  realization  has  he  of  the 
marvelous  ways  of  God  in  the  creation  and  preser- 
vation of  all  things,  of  his  wondrous  influence  as  a 
potential  presence  in  the  soul  ?  And  what  can  he 
really  grasp  concerning  these  things  until  his  mind 
is  developed  into  such  a  faculty  of  spiritual  thought 
as  enables  him  to  realize  something  of  the  nature 
of  God  ?  Until  then  God  is  little  more  to  him  than 
a  name.  The  child's  first  theological  lesson  is  a 
knoivledge  of  God,  but  the  spiritual  minded  adult's 
matured  idea  is  a  comprehension  of  the  truth.  But 
knowledge  usually  precedes  understanding,  and  is, 
therefore,  good  so  far  as  it  goes.  Knowledge  of 
spiritual  things,  however,  is  only  of  the  natural 
mind.  Realization  of  them  is  of  the  spiritual  mind. 
Knowledge  is  only  of  the  memory;  understanding 
is  a  far  higher  faculty. 

The  waters  under  the  heaven,  then,  symbolize  the 
knowledge  concerning  God,  heaven  and  eternal  life, 
concerning  goodness  and  love  and  the  sacredness  of 
spiritual  things  which  we  gain  as  knowledge  merely. 
All  the  information  concerning  these  things  we 
gain  in  childhood  is  of  this  character.  They  are 
not  realizations,  they  are  not  really  things  compre- 
hended. They  are  believed  only  because  our  par- 
ents or  teachers  tell  us  so.  And  the  same  holds 
good  with  all  truth  of  a  religious  character  that  we 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  63 

learn  in  after  life,  just  so  far  as  it  has  not  entered 
the  spiritual  understanding. 

But  these  waters  are  said  to  be  gathered  by  the 
Lord  into  one  place.  This  is  an  expression, in  sym- 
bolic form,  of  the  truth  that  what  we  learn  of  spir- 
itual things  is  first  gathered  together  in  the 
memory .  Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  phy- 
sical organs, the  brain  and  its  various  parts, through 
which  the  intellect  primarily  operates,  the  mind  it- 
self has  many  organs.  One  of  these,  and  perhaps, 
the  lowest  of  these,  is  the  memory.  It  is  the  one 
place  into  which  all  mental  impressions  are  first 
gathered. 

God  creates  everything  well.  All  things  are  ar- 
ranged by  him  in  true  order  and  with  reference  to 
what  is  yet  to  come.  It  is  true  of  the  physical  uni- 
verse and  it  is  true  of  man  as  a  material  and  mental 
being.  Equally  true  is  it  of  man  as  a  spiritual  be- 
ing. Creation  in  all  of  its  developments  proceeds 
by  orderly  stages.  Learning  precedes  understand- 
ing; memory  precedes  comprehension.  The  child, 
for  instance,  learns  his  figures  and  his  multiplica- 
tion table  and  various  rules  of  arithmetic  at  first  as 
mere  things  of  the  memory.  It  is  only  afterwards 
as  he  comes  to  make  application  of  them  to  matters 
of  practical  import  that  he  realizes  the  use  and 
beauty  of  them,  and  understands  why  they  were  so 
given.  First  stored  up  in  the  memory  as  mere  dead 


64  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

matters  of  knowledge,  then  they  are  elevated  out  of 
his  memory  and  into  the  rationality  as  useful  things 
of  life.  "Twice  two  is  four"  is  a  very  queer  and 
stupid  piece  of  information  as  it  falls  first  upon  the 
ears  of  the  youthful  mind.  But  let  him  go  to  the 
shop  and  find  out  that  the  two  sticks  of  candy  he 
has  bought  at  two  cents  apiece  make  four  cents 
that  he  has  to  pay  the  shopkeeper,  and  quite  a  new 
light  breaks  in  on  his  mind  as  to  the  meaning  and 
value  of  that,  to  him,  most  mystic  phrase.  And  as 
he  grows  up  and  enters  into  the  business  of  life, 
and  sees  the  wonderful  uses  of  arithmetic  in  all 
their  every  day  aspects  and  gets,  almost  without 
reflection,  to  see  the  reasons  of  its  rules  and  combi- 
nations, arithmetic  rises  out  of  the  memory  into 
the  understanding. 

And  in  learning  music,  we  are  first  taught, and  we 
store  up  in  the  memory,  all  knowledges  with  regard 
to  musical  facts,  terms  and  tones.  We  learn  about 
the  lines  and  spaces,  the  notes  and  staves,  the  tones 
and  semi-tones,  and  a  hundred  other  things,  as  dry 
as  dry  can  be  to  the  young  mind,  and  they  are  all 
stored  away  in  the  memory.  But  when  these  are 
brought  into  practical  application,  and  their  uses 
are  clearly  seen,  and  it  is  realized  so  that  nothing 
can  be  plainer,  that  there  can  be  no  making  of  mu- 
sic without  these  as  the  necessary  elements;  and 
when  we  sing  beautiful  songs  and  play  delightful 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  65 

mslodies  by  means  of  our  knowledge  of  them,  why 
then  that  knowledge  ha  >  advanced  into  understand- 
ing, realization,  joy  of  soul,  by  its  practical  adap- 
tation to  the  uses  for  which  it  was  designed.  It 
may  remain  mere  dry  knowledge,  and  with  many 
learners  it  does,  but  with  those  who  come  into  full 
comprehension  of  its  adaptability  to  the  making  of 
real  music,  by  the  practical  application  of  its  prin- 
ciples, it  has  been  elevated  out  of  the  memory  and 
into  the  understanding. 

These  may  seem  small  matters  to  the  thoughtless 
mind,  but  they  are  not.  They  are  illustrations  of  a 
most  important  principle.  Knowledge  is  one  thing, 
understanding  what  we  know  is  quite  another. 
Knowledge  is  an  exceedingly  good  thing  as  a  step- 
ping stone  to  understanding — a  necessary  thing  in- 
deed; but  alone  and  by  itself, and  without  its  proper 
increment,  its  value  is  infinitely  diminished. 

But  the  importance  of  the  principle  and  of  these 
very  homely  illustrations  of  it  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  precisely  so  with  all  things  of  spiritual  import. 
Stowing  away  in  the  memory  outward  statements 
of  religious  doctrine  however  true,  formulas  of 
faith,  or  scripture  texts  however  well  learned,  is  one 
thing.  But  to  gain  a  true  idea  of  them;  to  lift  them 
out  of  the  memory  into  spiritual  understanding  and 
realization;  thus  to  see  their  beauty  and  feel  their 
rationality,  to  hold  them  as  the  delight  of  the  soul 


66  The  Parable  of  Creation, 

to  have  them  sweeten  the  life,  to  bring  their  irflu- 
ences  into  practical  bearing  on  every  work  and 
duty, to  love  the  I^ord  and  the  neighbor  with  them, 
to  rise  into  heaven  by  their  means;  why — this  is 
quite  another  thing.  But  we  must  get  knowledge 
before  we  can  get  understanding.  We  must  store 
up  what  we  learn  in  the  memory  before  we  can  take 
it  out  and  transfer  it  into  ideas  of  use  and  beautj^. 
It  is  on  precisely  the  same  principle  that  food  must 
be  gathered  together  in  one  place,  the  stomach,  be- 
fore it  can  be  put  to  its  proper  use.  There  its  life- 
giving  essences  are  separated  and  preparations  for 
their  distribution  made.  Then  they  go  forth 
through  their  proper  channels  to  the  making  of 
blood,  flesh,  bone,  muscle,  nerve  or  brain,  and  con- 
tribute each  moment  to  the  constant  re-creation  of 
man's  physical  system.  The  memory  is  the  store- 
house of  the  soul.  Reflection  gathers  from  it  its 
food  for  thought.  Reason  selects  from  its  treasures 
the  best  elements  for  the  development  of  mind. 
Wisdom  looks  down  into  its  treasury  of  facts  and 
weaves  from  them  a  heavenly  life. 

So  the  waters  under  the  heaven  gathered  to- 
gether into  one  place  are  the  knowledges  of  spirit- 
ual and  Divine  things  which  become  stored  in  the 
memory.  This  storing  of  the  mind  is  of  the  prov- 
idence of  the  Lord.  It  is  in  the  direct  line  of  his 
way  of  doing  things.  He  desires  that  the  memory 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  67 

shall  be  so  filled  for  the  soul's  future  use.  If  the 
man  is  himself  opposed  to  the  study  of  spiritual 
things,  he  is  providentially  led  amid  such  circum- 
stances and  surroundings,  as,  unconsciously  to  him- 
self, secure  in  some  degree,  the  desired  end. 

It  is  said,  "Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be 
gathered  together  into  one  place,  and  let  the  dry 
land  appear.'  Here  the  natural  thought  at  once 
reverts  to  the  idea  of  a  separation  effected  between 
the  oceans  and  continents  of  earth.  It  is  as  though, 
whereas,  all  before  was  one  vast  sheet  of  circling 
water,  the  Lord  now  said,  "Let  the  dry  land  arise 
above  the  waves.'  But  the  spiritual  thought  goes 
forth  on  different  lines.  A  dry  tree  would  be  a 
dead  tree.  A  perfectly  dry  physical  human  body 
would  be  a  lifeless  mummy.  In  the  language  of 
sacred  symbolism  that  is  called  dry  which  is  devoid 
of  spiritual  life.  As  earth  or  land  signifies  the 
mind,  the  dry  land  is  the  rnind  without  spiritual 
life.  When,  therefore,  in  this  parable  of  the  crea- 
tion, that  is,  of  man's  regeneration,  the  Lord  ex- 
claims, "Let  the  dry  land  appear,"  it  is  as  though 
He  had  said,  "Let  now  the  regenerating  man 
see  how  dry — how  spiritually  dead  and  lifeless  is 
the  land  of  his  mind.  Let  its  dry  ness  appear 
to  him." 

There  is  no  dryer  task  in   life  than   that  of  pour- 
ing the  waters  of  mere  knowledge,  of  mere  mem- 


68  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

orized  facts,  into  the  sandy  plains  of  the  memory. 
Every  schoolboy  knows  that.  It  is  only  as  he 
understands  or  usefully  applies  what  he  learns  that 
it  becomes  interesting  to  him.  Now  the  man,  we 
assume,  has  been  all  his  life,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously gathering  the  dead  knowledges  of  religious 
instruction  into  his  memory.  If  he  is  a  student  of 
religious  things  he  may  fancy  that  this  constitutes 
him  a  religious  man.  But  it  does  not.  If  he  is  a 
worldly  man  he  may  fancy  that  the  ideas  of  moral- 
ity he  has,  and  a  vague  belief  in  God  and  a  future 
state,  make  him  all  right.  He  also  is  mistaken. 
The  laud  of  his  memory,  albeit  it  is  of  moral  and 
spiritual  truths,  is  as  dry  as  his  spiritual  nature  is 
lifeless.  But  now  that  he  has  leached  the  proper 
state  for  further  advance,  the  Lord  desires  he  should 
know  how  dry  and  lifeless  these  knowledges  he  has 
gained  are.  So  he  says  in  the  parable,  "Let  the  dry 
land  appear  !"  "Let  it  appear  to  you  how  dry  and 
lifeless  the  land  of  the  memory  in  itself  considered 
is  ' 

"And  God  called  the  dry  land  earth."  The 
names  of  things  in  Scripture  are  always  indicative 
of  their  qualit}*.  This  expression  is,  in  the  pecu- 
liar form  of  ancient  sacred  symbolism,  simply  a 
statement  that  the  earth  or  land  of  the  mind  is  at 
this  period  of  regeneration  still  spiritually  dry  and 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  69 

barren.  When  it  is  said  God  calls  a  thing  so,  it 
means  that  in  the  view  of  the  Lord  so  and  so  it  is. 

"And  the  gathering  together  of  the  waters  called 
He  seas."  This  is  so  stated  because  as  the  sea  is 
an  aggregation  of  many  streams  of  water,  the  mem- 
ory is  an  aggregation  of  many  streams  of  knowledge. 
Therefore,  as  the  gathering  together  of  the  waters 
means  the  collecting  of  truths  in  the  memory,  seas 
are  used  throughout  the  Scripture  to  signify  the 
memory  as  the  first  great  receptacle  of  spiritual 
knowledges  in  their  various  degrees  and  kinds. 

"And  God  saw  that  it  was  good,':  Everything 
in  its  order  and  degree  is  good  in  the  sight  of  God. 
It  is  good  that  the  law  of  order  should  be  followed. 
It  is  good  that  regeneration  should  progress  in  an 
orderly  way.  It  is  good  to  gain  the  knowledges, 
facts  or  truths  with  regard  to  the  Lord,  a  spiritual 
world,  a  spiritual  life  and  other  spiritual  things,  so 
as  to  store  them  away  in  the  memory.  That  is.it  is 
good,  if  it  leads  on  to  the  higher  life  for  which  only 
they  are  useful. 

"And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass, 
and  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit  tree  yield- 
ing fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon 
the  earth.'  Here  we  have  the  similitude  which 
tells  of  the  mind  actually  yielding  its  first  fruits  of 
spiritual  life.  The  object  of  all  religious  knowledge 
is  religious  life.  It  is  utterly  useless  to  know  of  the 


yo  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

higher  things  of  the  Lord  and  not  to  love  them. 
Indeed  all  knowledge  is  worthless  unless  it  is  ap- 
plied to  use.  But  to  know  God  and  not  to  attempt 
to  do  his  will,  to  know  what  the  life  of  love  is  and  to 
live  in  an  utterly  selfish  manner,  to  understand  the 
nature  of  heaven  and  to  live  by  merely  worldly 
rules  is  a  miserable  squandering  of  the  gifts  of 
God.  Unless  at  least  a  genuine  effort  is  made  to 
bring  that  knowledge  forth  into  every  day  life,  the 
gaining  of  it  will  prove  to  be  a  matter  of  very  little 
consequence.  The  faculty  of  knowledge  has  been 
conferred  upon  us  in  order  that  we  may  put  to  its 
highest  use  the  knowledge  that  we  gain.  When, 
therefore, dawning  light  breaks  in  upon  us  as  to  the 
greater  value  of  that  which  is  spiritual,  and  the 
higher  mind  is  so  opened  that  we  can  make  clear 
distinctions  between  what  is  spiritual  and  what  is 
natural  in  knowledge,  thought,  love  or  life,  then 
we  are  to. live  in  the  light  we  have  gained.  This 
beginning  to  live  it  is  the  third  stage  of  regenera- 
tion. 

At  the  outset  our  efforts  will  be  feeble  and  their 
results  small.  They  will  be  more  like  those  first 
efforts  of  young  eaglets  to  fly,  which  consist  in  try- 
ing their  wings  only  to  see  what  they  can  do,  than 
like  the  flights  of  conscious  strength  they  make 
when  fearlessly  soaring  above  the  mountain  tops. 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  7 1 

The  idea  that  we  can  come  into  full  .spiritual 
strength  and  life  in  a  single  moment  by  a  miracu- 
lous exercise  of  the  grace  of  God,  though  widely 
entertained,  is  contradicted  by  all  that  our  Lord  has 
ever  taught.  In  his  parabolic  method  of  speaking, 
it  is  always  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear  ;  it  is  first  the  seed,  smallest  of 
all  seeds,  then  the  herb,  then  the  tree.  These  illus- 
trations of  his  are  designed  to  teach  the  direct 
truth  of  progressive  regenerative  growth.  One 
might  as  well  undertake  to  ascend  a  mountain  with- 
out taking  the  necessary  series  of  upward  succes- 
sive steps,  or  from  a  child  to  become  an  adult  by  an 
instantaneous  effort,  as  to  become  regenerated 
without  passing  through,  and  slowly  through,  the 
proper  successive  stages  of  progress.  So  none  may 
feel  discouragement  because  they  do  not  come  into 
all  truth  at  once,  or  lose  their  many  evils,  sins  and 
faults  at  once,  or  gain  the  perfect  love  for  God  and 
man  at  once. 

There  is  very  little  real  good  in  our  first  upward 
efforts — very  little  of  the  Lord  in  them.  In  what- 
ever of  good  we  seem  to  do  we,  in  heart,  take  the 
credit  to  ourselves.  Thus  there  is  little  genuine 
humility  in  our  religion.  It  is  the  easiest  thing  in 
the  world  to  imagine  we  are  humble  when,  really, 
we  are  proud.  People  are  sometimes  proud  of  their 
humility. 


72  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

As  a  matter  of  truth  the  Lord  alone  regenerates 
us.  It  is  He  only  who  infuses  the  good  into  our 
desires,  thoughts  or  acts.  Our  part  is  simply  to 
yield  to  those  influences.  Then  under  their  im- 
pulse we,  in  the  freedom  with  which  we  are  en- 
dowed, endeavor  to  avoid  what  is  wrong  in  purpose, 
thought  or  deed.  But,  in  our  first  beginnings  to  fly, 
like  the  young  birds,  we  come  to  the  ground  very 
often.  We  do  it  especially  in  this,  that  we  deem 
whatever  of  spiritual  progress  we  make  to  be  so 
made  in  our  own  strength.  In  this  position  of 
mind  the  Lord  gets  but  little  of  the  credit.  We 
may,  indeed,  say  that  it  is  the  Lord's  influence,  aid 
and  strength  ;  but  we  do  not  feel  it,  do  not  real- 
ize his  presence  as  in  the  effort,  do  not  from  our  real 
hearts  so  acknowledge  it.  We  imagine  we  acknowl- 
edge things  sometimes  when  we  really  do  not. 
And  one  of  the  most  common  perversities  of  human 
nature  is  for  a  man  to  think  he  believes  a  certain 
thing,  when  underneath  and  behind  his  thought, 
concealed  from  his  own  immediate  view,  is  a  huge 
distrust  of  the  very  truth  that  he  thinks  he  thinks. 

Yet  notwithstanding  the  small  amount  of  spir- 
itual life  which  is  to  be  found  in  these  first  efforts 
at  living  out  so  much  of  the  truth  of  God  as  we 
have  begun  to  profess,  this  third  state  of  regenera- 
tion is  a  most  valuable  experience.  The  swimmer 
would  never  have  learned  to  swim  unless  he  had 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  73 

made  his  first  floundering  exertions.  Milton  would 
never  have  penned  his  immortal  poem  if  he  had  not 
made  his  first  poor  attempt  at  writing  verse.  And 
the  fact  that  he  might  have  deemed  his  first  efforts 
at  versification  very  exquisite  when  the}^  were  quite 
the  contrary,  does  not  in  the  least  detract  from  their 
value  as  beginnings.  The  Lord  never  despises  be- 
ginnings. But  He  puts  them  at  their  true  worth, 
and  values  them  only  as  beginnings. 

Therefore,  in  this  account  of  creation  as  a  para- 
ble of  regeneration,  wThat  the  mind  brings  forth  is 
still  expressed  under  the  similitude  of  what  the 
earth  brings  forth.  This  third  stage  of  regenera- 
tion is  described  by  the  springing  forth  of  vegeta- 
tion, first,  in  its  lower  forms  of  grass,  then  in  the 
higher  forms  of  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  at  last 
in  the  highest  form  of  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit. 
Thus  you  will  observe  that  on  the  third  day  of  cre- 
ation the  earth  brings  forth  something  that  has  life. 
The  lesson  of  the  similitude  is  that  in  the  third 
stage  of  regeneration  the  mind  develops  somewhat 
of  spiritual  life.  Let  us  see  this  in  the  proper  order 
of  the  words  of  the  parable. 

"And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass, 
and  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit  tree  yield- 
ing fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon 
the  earth."  The  earth  is  the  mind.  The  grass  or 
low  growth  of  vegetation  which  it  brings  forth 


74  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

symbolizes  the  first  germinations  of  really  spiritual 
endeavor,  put  forth  by  the  mind.  The  herb  yield- 
ing seed  is  a  higher  form  of  vegetation.  It  refers, 
naturally,  to  the  various  grains,  such  as  wheat, 
barley,  or  rye,  whose  seed  is  a  nutritious  food  for 
man.  But  spiritually  it  is  a  higher  spiritual  en- 
deavor which  produces  something  true  and  good. 
The  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit  represents  a  still  higher 
endeavor  which  bears  the  fruits  of  a  yet  more  spir- 
itual life.  The  idea  is  still  enforced  in  the  parable 
that  even  first  endeavors  at  spiritual  things  have 
their  degrees  of  effort,  weak,  stronger,  stronger  yet, 
good,  better,  better  still,  as  life  goes  on. 

It  is  said,  "Whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon  the  earth," 
in  allusion  to  the  natural  fact  of  the  tree  producing 
fruit  in  which  is  seed  and  from  whence  new  trees 
spring  forth  to  the  production  of  still  other  fruit, 
again  producing  seed,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  in  a  cir- 
cle perpetually.  The  spiritual  truth  this  represents 
is,  that  what  is  spiritual  tends  to  produce  continu- 
ally newer  forms  of  spiritual  thought  and  life  and 
this  in  endless  succession  forever. 

"And  God  saw  that  it  was  good.'  Yes,  God 
sees  that  this  also  is  good;  good  again,  however,  for 
its  time  and  season;  good  as  a  stepping  stone  to  the 
better.  For  that  which  is  yet  more  spiritual  must, 
in  its  due  order,  come. 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  75 

Vegetable  life,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  after 
all  and  at  its  best,  the  lowest  form  of  life.  When 
we  say  of  a  man  that  ' '  He  does  not  really  live,  he 
only  vegetates,"  we  use  a  proverbial  form  of  ex- 
pression that  conveys  no  very  high  opinion  of  the 
man.  There  are  three  orders  of  natural  life,  the 
vegetable,  the  animal  and  man.  They  are  each  ex- 
cellent in  their  order  and  degree.  But  man  alone 
has  rationality  and  speech.  Beasts  have  instinct 
only.  Vegetation,  no  conscious  existence  at  all. 
But  vegetation,  when  the  three  are  symbolically 
compared,  typifies  only  the  first  and  lower  germi- 
nations of  spiritual  endeavor  and  life,  upon  which 
the  higher  principles  when  they  come  into  develop- 
ment will,  as  it  were,  feed. 

Our  spiritual  life,  such  as  it  is,  in  this  third  stage 
of  regeneration,  is  not  a  conscious  spiritual  life. 
We  make  endeavors,  we  live  in  a  more  orderly 
manner,  we  break  fewer  commandments,  but  we 
have  no  conscious  life  of  the  Lord  in  mind  or  heart. 
The  highest  type  of  spiritual  man  realizes  the  Di- 
vine presence  in  the  soul;  he  feels  that  he  lives 
from  it;  he  basks  it  in  its  sunlight.  Just  what  this 
means  we  will  see  further  on  in  our  consideration 
of  the  parable  of  creation.  But  he  who  is  only  be- 
ginning this  better  life  feels  his  efforts  as  his  own. 
He  may  indeed  with  his  lips  acknowledge  the  Lord 
in  them,  but  he  has  no  inward  realization  of  what 


j6  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

that  means,  no  consciousness  of  the  Divine  pres-* 
ence.  It  is  right  that  it  should  be  so.  Beginnings 
are  only  beginnings,  and  the  Lord  sees  that  it  is 
good;  good,  however,  in  its  degree,  no  further. 

So  in  this  stage  of  regeneration  the  earth  is  only 
yielding  its  first  fruits,  not  its  best.  On  this  plane 
of  life,  though  good  as  compared  with  the  old  void- 
ness  and  darkness,  we  are,  spiritually  speaking, 
only  vegetating  after  all.  We  have  had  our  even- 
ing of  darker  state  and  we  stand  in  the  morning  of 
one  better  than  the  last.  The  evening  and  the 
morning  are  indeed  the  third  day,  but  if  we  turn 
not  back  the  revolving  wheel  of  our  re-creation 
there  are  four  more  yet  to  come.  All  in  its  time 
and  order.  Although  we  are  but  vegetating  there 
is  no  cause  for  discouragement.  We  cannot  go 
higher  unless  we  stand  on  what  is  lower  and  take 
our  upward  step  from  thence;  and  everything,  how- 
ever imperfect  as  being  comparatively  low,  is  good 
as  a  standing  place  from  whence  to  mount  to  things 
above. 

And  so  we  come  to  this  point  and  the  work  still 

M, 

goes  on.  We  stand  among  the  sheaves  of  our 
garnered  grain;  we  taste  the  rich  fruits  of  a  better 
life  than  once  we  had  even  dreamed  of;  but  we  look 
earnestly  forward,  lovingly  higher,  and  wonder  what 
better  things  the  Lord  has  yet  in  store  for  us,  in 


The  First  Fruits  of  Spiritual  Life.  77 

t 

states  of  regenerative  experience  of  which  we  have 
dim  visions  but  have  not  reached  as  yet. 

And  so  we  see  how  beautifully  the  parable  of  the 
creation,  when  viewed  in  its  inward  meaning,  sets 
forth  the  regeneration  of  the  human  soul.  In  the 
very  consideration  of  its  symbols,  and  in  the  ex- 
planations and  illustrations  which  necessarily  con- 
nect themselves  therewith,  we  are  developing  the 
true  philosophy  of  the  spiritual  new  birth,  and  are 
learning  to  place  that  most  interesting  subject  on  its 
true  basis.  We  are  gaining,  not  human  opinions 
which  may  or  may  not  be  true,  but  the  absolute  in- 
wardness of  revelations,  which,  because  they  are 
divine,  are  truth  itself. 


IV. 

THE     ELEVATION    OF    LOVE     AND     FAITH. 

And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven 
to  divide  t/ie  day  from  t/ie  night ;  and  let  them  be  for  signs,  and 
for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and  years  ;  and  let  them  be  for  lights  in 
the  firmament  of  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth  ;  and  it  was 
so.  And  God  made  two  great  lights  ;  the  greater  light  to  ride  the 
day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night  ;  he  made  the  stars  also. 
And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  heaven  to  give  light  upon 
the  earth,  and  to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the  night,  and  to 
divide  the  light  from  the  darkness;  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 
And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  fourth  day. — Gen.  I  : 
14-19. 

In  three  previous  discourses  we  have  considered 
the  subject  of  the  first  three  days  of  creation.  We 
have  thus  learned  for  what  the  Biblical  narrative  of 
that  event  was  not  designed  and  for  what  it  was. 
Thus,  it  was  not  designed  to  be  an  account  of  the 
literal  creation  of  the  earth  ;  it  was  not  intended  as 
a  lesson  in  cosmogony  or  geology  or  any  other 
branch  of  natural  science.  But  it  had,  of  course,  a 
Divine  purpose  and  meaning.  This  purpose  was  to 
set  forth  in  parable  or  sacred  allegory  a  series  of 
spiritual  truths. 

The  seven    days  of  creation  were  thus  found  to 
symbolize   the    seven    stages   of  progress    through 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  79 

which  man  passes  in  the  regeneration.  He  is  born 
merely  natural  and  at  first  develops  only  his  nat- 
ural powers  and  mind.  But  it  is  also  designed  by 
his  Creator  that  he  shall  become  spiritual  and 
develop  his  spiritual  powers  and  mind.  This  de- 
velopment, always  gradual  and  slow,  is  called  in 
Scripture  the  regeneration. 

At  first,  and  before  regeneration  begins,  we  are 
in  ignorance,  or,  at  least,  in  non-acknowledgment 
of  spiritual  things.  A  little  child  knows  nothing  as 
to  its  spiritual  nature.  It  may  learn  a  little  with 
regard  to  it,  but  what  it  learns  it  does  not  really 
understand.  The  adult,  who  takes  no  interest  in 
anything  but  his  worldly  affairs  and  pleasures,  and 
does  not  see  anything  in  a  spiritual  idea  when  it  is 
presented  to  him,  has  not  gone  many  steps,  in  this, 
beyond  the  child.  His  mind  may  fcave  developed 
largely  on  natural  lines,  but  certainly  not  on  spirit- 
ual. As,  however,  he  takes  more  interest  in  things 
of  higher  import,  and  comes  more  and  more  under 
their  influence,  he  makes  steps  of  progress  herein. 
This  progress  in  the  unfolding  of  the  higher  ele- 
ments of  his  being  is  his  regeneration.  And  as  the 
Biblical  narrative  of  the  creation  sets  forth  under 
the  form  of  parable,  and  in  the  language  of  sacred 
symbolism,  the  history  of  man's  regeneration,  the 
seven  days  in  which  the  progressive  events  of  the 
earth's  creation  are  related,  symbolize  the  seven 


8o  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

general  states  of  progress  through  which  all  have  to 
pass  from  the  merely  natural  to  the  higher  spiritual. 

Your  minds  were  then  directed  to  the  truth  con- 
cerning the  particular  ideas  involved  in  the  state- 
ments with  reference  to  the  first  three  days.  I 
called  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  earth  was, 
throughout  the  Scripture,  a  symbol  of  the  mind  of 
man.  The  condition  in  which  it  was  previous  to 
creation,  its  being  without  form  and  void,  was  a 
perfect  illustration  of  the  state  of  each  one's  mind 
previous  to  regeneration.  As  to  religious  ideas  or 
purposes,  it  is  without  form  and  void.  The  dark- 
ness which  was  said  to  dwell,  at  that  time,  on  the 
face  of  the  deep,  symbolized  the  great  darkness  as 
to  spiritual  things,  which  is  the  first  condition  of 
all,  previous  to  their  entrance  upon  the  regenera- 
tion. Ignorance,  as  to  this  phase  of  knowledge, 
life  and  power,  broods  upon  the  face  of  their  mental 
deeps. 

If  one  is  in  ignorance,  or  in  non-acknowledgment 
of  the  truth  of  any  subject,  the  first  step  is  to  get 
light  upon  it, to  gain  information  concerning  it,  and 
such  information,  and  in  such  form,  that  he  may  be 
able  to  see  and  believe  it.  The  first  light  on  spirit- 
ual subjects  is  that  whereby  we  acknowledge  its 
primary  principles,  such  as,  that  there  is  a  God  and 
that  spiritual  things  are,  in  themselves,  of  a  higher 
nature  and  of  more  importance  than  worldly  things. 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  8r 

This,  as  we  learned,  was  represented  in  the  parable 
by  the  command  of  God,  "Let  there  be  light,"  and 
its  resulting  consequence,  "there  was  light.'  And 
this,  the  first  day  of  creation,  symbolizes  the  first 
stage  of  regeneration — some  light  let  in  upon  the 
darkness  of  the  mind. 

Having  gained  this  much,  the  second  step  is  to 
acquire  a  habit  of  understanding  spiritual  truth 
when  it  is  presented  to  the  mind;  in  other  words, 
to  have  the  spiritual  understanding  opened  or  the 
spiritual  mind  developed.  This,  we  found  to  be 
represented  by  the  creation  of  the  firmament.  The 
natural  firmament  or  sky  is  the  region  above, 
through  which  light  irradiates  the  realms  of  space 
and  pours  in  upon  the  earth.  Correspondingly  the 
spiritual  firmament  of  the  mind  is  where  light  on 
spiritual  themes  is  received  and  spread  around,  and 
into  all  the  various  faculties. 

Having  now  obtained  a  mental  power  of  receiving 
the  lyord's  spiritual  teachings, and  of  comprehending 
them,  the  third  step  is  the  bringing  forth  of  that  which 
we  have  thus  far  gained  into  fruits  of  a  good  life. 
The  prominent  feature  of  the  third  day  of  creation 
was  the  earth  bringing  forth  grass  and  the  herb 
yielding  seed  and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit. 
These,  being  the  first  springings  forth  of  life  on 
earth,  we  found  to  be  symbolic  of  the  mind's  first 
effort  to  bring-  forth  into  life  something  living  and 


82  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

spiritual.  It  is  vegetable  life;  it  is  not  of  a  very  high 
kind;  still,  it  is  life.  So  the  covering  of  the  field  of 
the  mind  with  the  tender  verdure  of  incipient  spirit- 
ual resolves  is  represented  by  the  Lord's  clothing 
the  earth  with  grass.  The  growth  of  the  mind  into 
the  bringing  forth  of  the  fruits  of  good  efforts, based 
upon  what  we  have  thus  far  spiritually  understood, 
is  figuratively  delineated  by  the  Lord  causing  the 
herb  yielding  seed  and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit  to 
spring  up  upon  the  earth. 

And  thus  we  gained  and  explained  the  meaning 
of  the  first  three  days  of  creation  as  symbolizing  the 
first  three  stages  of  regeneration.  In  the  beginning 
of  earth's  creation  there  was  chaos  and  darkness. 
Then  there  was  brought  into  being — on  the  first 
day,  light;  on  the  second,  the  firmament;  on  the 
third,  vegetable  life — grass,  herbs,  fruit.  Observe 
the  parallel.  Previous  to  regeneration,  in  the  case 
of  every  person,  there  is  ignorance  or  denial- 
spiritual  darkness.  The  first  stage  or  progress  con- 
sists in  light — mental  light  concerning  the  superior 
value  of  spiritual  things.  The  second  is  in  the 
opening  of  the  firmament  of  the  mind,  its  upper 
realm  of  the  spiritual  understanding.  The  third  is 
in  the  bringing  forth  of  the  first  germinations  of 
spiritual  life  and  the  first  ripened  fruits  of  higher 
principles. 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  83 

Thus  far  we  have  proceeded,  in  our  previous 
lectures,  in  the  elucidation  of  this  parable  of  the 
creation.  We  come  now  to  the  fourth  day.  This 
symbolizes  the  fourth  stage  of  regeneration. 

"And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night;  and  let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons, 
and  for  days  and  years;  and  let  them  be  for 
lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light 
upon  the  earth;  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  two 
great  lights;  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  and 
the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night;  he  made  the  stars 
also.  And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  heaven 
to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule  over  the 
day  and  over  the  night, and  to  divide  the  light  from 
the  darkness.' 

These  great  lights,  the  greater  light  to  rule  the 
day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night,  are,  of 
course,  the  sun  and  moon.  But  there  is  a  curious 
feature  of  this  portion  of  the  narrative  to  which  the 
opponents  of  the  Bible  have  not  neglected  to  call 
attention.  It  is  that  the  sun  was  riot  created  until 
the  fourth  day.  Now  the  sun  is  the  well-known 
source  of  all  our  light.  The  moon  only  shines 
with  the  borrowed  light  of  the  sun.  It  is  the  sun 
which  divides  the  day  from  the  night — light  from 
darkness.  Its  presence  constitutes  light  and  day; 
its  absence  is  darkness  and  night.  Yet  the  first 


84  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

act  of  the  first  day  of  creation  was  the  fiat  of  God, 
"L,et  there  be  light,"  and  the  very  first  result  of 
creative  energy  consisted  in  the  fact  that  "there 
was  light.'1  Now,  here  is  the  paradox.  The  sun  is 
the  only  source  of  natural  light;  the  sun  was  not 
created  until  the  fourth  day;  and  yet  there  was 
light  on  the  first  day.  The  opponents  of  Bible- 
inspiration,  therefore,  put  to  us  several  very  pertinent 
questions.  If  the  sun  was  not  created  until  the 
fourth  day,  how  could  there  have  been  light  on  the 
first  day?  If  light  was  created  on  the  first  day  which 
divided  the  day  from  the  night,  the  light  from  the 
darkness,  what  necessity  was  there  for  the  creation 
of  a  new  source  of  light  on  the  fourth  day  for  the 
purpose  of  effecting  the  very  thing  which  had 
already  been  done  on  the  first  day?  Or  if  two  natural 
sources  of  light  were  at  that  time  created,  how  is  it 
and  when  was  it,  that  the  one  originally  made 
was  blotted  out  from  the  face  of  the  heavens  or 
destroyed  ? 

This  question,  from  a  strictly  literal  point  of 
view,  has  never  been  answered.  It  cannot  be.  The 
nearest  approach  to  an  answer  that  has  ever  been 
given  is,  that  it  is  one  of  those  mysteries  of  religion 
which  must  be  received  by  faith  even  though  it  be 
.contrary  to  reason. 

The  believer  in  the  truth    that   this  is  a  spiritual 
parable  avoids   this    confusion.     When    he    under- 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  85 

• 

stands  its  meaning,  he  sees  at  a  glance  the  figurative 
reasons  for  its  taking  that  form.  Knowing  that  it 
was  given  for  the  sake  of  its  spiritual  meaning  only, 
he  views  the  expressions  as  fully  harmonious  with 
that  purpose.  He  may  go  even  further  and  admit 
the  force  of  a  natural  figurative  meaning  underlying 
the  other  which  will  harmonize  these  statements 
with  the  facts  of  known  science.  But  the  basic 
truth  is  that  its  primary  form,  force  and  meaning  is 
spiritual. 

And  now  let  us  see  what  the  natural  figures  are 
that  are  here  used,  and  what  they  spiritually  mean. 

On  this  fouith  day  there  are  lights  set  up  in  the 
firmament  of  heaven.  They  are  placed  there  to 
give  light  upon  the  earth  ;  and  to  divide  the  day 
from  the  night,  and  to  separate  the  light  from  the 
darkness.  When  we  remember  that  the  firmament 
of  heaven  typifies  the  spiritual  mind,  that  is  to  say, 
the  faculty  of  discerning  spiritual  things,  the  signifi- 
cance of  these  newly  created  objects  becomes  mani- 
fest. According  to  the  laws  of  Divine  symbolism, 
the  sun  is  the  symbol  of  love;  the  moon  of  faith, 
and  the  stars  of  knowledge.  But  as  these  are  of 
little  value  except  as  they  are  directed  to  the  Lord 
'and  derived  from  Him,  the  sun  is  frequently  used 
to  denote  the  Lord  as  the  object  of  our  love,  the 
moon  to  denote  the  Lord  as  the  object  of  our  faith, 
and  the  stars  to  signify  our  knowledge  concerning 


86  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

the  Lord  and  his  goodness  and  truths.  Therefore 
we  may  say  that  the  sun  typifies  the  Lord  as  to 
love,  and  the  moon  the  Lord  as  to  faith  ;  or  we  may 
say  that  the  sun  signifies  love  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
moon  faith  in  the  Lord.  The  meaning  is  the  same. 
Love,  in  this  its  Divine  sense,  is  always  from  the 
Lord  and  is  the  Lord  in  us.  Faith  is  always  given 
us  by  the  Lord,  and,  in  another  sense,  is  the  Lord ,  . 
in  us.  So  whether  we  say,  love,  or  love  to  the 
Lord,  or  the  Lord  as  our  love,  it  is,  in  its  radical 
sense,  about  the  same.  Or  whether  we  say,  faith, 
or  faith  in  the  Lord,  or  the  Lord  as  our  faith,  it  is, 
virtually,  the  same. 

The  sun  signifies  the  Lord  because  that  solar  orb 
rules  in  the  realm  of  nature  in  a  manner  correspond- 
ing to  that  in  which  the  Lord  rules  in  the  realm  rof 
spirit.  It  might  be  said  that  the  sun  of  nature  is 
the  Lord's  vice-gerent  in  the  physical  planetary 
spheres.  As  the  sun  gives  heat  and  light  to  the 
world  of  nature,  the  Lord  gives  spiritual  warmth 
which  is  love,  and  spiritual  light  which  is  under- 
standing to  the  world  of  the  mind.  As  the  sun 
causes  the  earth  to  be  covered  with  verdure,  germi- 
nates the  seed,  swells  the  bud,  develops  the  leaf 
and  flower  and  fruit,  and  gives  life,  growth  and 
renewal  to  all  things,  so  the  Lord  causes  the  mind 
to  become  clothed  with  the  verdure  of  spiritual 
life,  brings  forth  with  his  gentle  influences  the 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  87 

blossoms    and    fruits  of    the   spirit,    fills  with  life 
its  affections  and  thoughts,  and  gives  strength  and 
growth  to  its  varied  faculties.       And  could  we  but 
peer  into  the  domain    of  the  higher  spheres  of  the 
world  beyond,  we  would  see  the  Lord  as  the  benefi- 
cent sun  or  life-giver   of  its  entire  spiritual  realms. 
But  the  sun  typifies  the  Lord  as  love,  because  it 
kis  the  sun,  in  respect   to  its  warmth,  which    makes 
the  earth  so  full  of  life  and  beauty,  as  it  is  the  Lord, 

• 

in  respect  to  his  affectionate  warmth  of  love,  who 
renders  living,  glowing,  real,  all  that  fills  the  world 
of  the  mind.  Our  hearts  warm  toward  what  we 
love  ;  they  are  cold  toward  what  we  love  not.  Love 
is  the  warmth  of  the  spiritual  nature.  It  is  the 
Lord's  gift  of  love  which  warms  us  towrard  Him- 
self, toward  religion,  toward  spiritual  study,  toward 
the  higher  life  and  work,  just  as  it  is  the  sun's  heat 
which  warms,  revives  and  renovates  the  earth. 

This  symbol  of  the  sun  as  representing  the  Lord, 
and  especially  the  Lord  as  our  love,  is  as  old  as 
human  religion.  It  was  the  origin  of  sun-worship. 
For  as  the  sun  was  first  used  as  a  symbol  only  of 
the  Deity,  and  as  such  temples  were  adorned  with 
its  semblance  and  dedicated  to  its  name,  through 
the  decadence  of  religion  the  symbol  became,  in 
human  thought,  the  reality  ;  and  the  sun,  in  its 
origin,  the  type  of  God,  became  to  idolatrous 
nations  the  great  Gol  himself. 


88  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

That  the  moon  symbolizes  the  Lord  as  our  faith 
may  be  illustrated  by  these  considerations :  The 
moon  shines  by  reflected  light,  while  the  sun  is 
light  and  heat  in  itself.  The  faith  of  fhe  mind  is 
true  and  bright  only  as  it  is  reflected  from  love- 
only  as  it  is  a  response  to  the  deep  love  of  the 
heart.  The  moon's  light  is  borrowed  from  the  sun. 
Sunlight,  therefore,  is  the  great  natural  power  of 
life  and  growth  which  broods  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Moonlight  has  very  little  to  do  with  cover- 
ing the  land  with  corn,  with  filling  the  gardens 
with  flowers,  or  with  loading  the  trees  with  fruit. 
The  moon  without  the  sun  would  have  neither  light 
nor  life.  Faith  without  love  is  cold  and  dead.  It 
can  neither  warm  the  heart,  enlighten  the  mind, 
nor  give  salvation  to  the  man.  But  faith  that  is 
kindled  at  the  shrine  of  the  heart's  best  love,  faith 
which  borrows  its  light  from  love,  faith  which 
reflects  the  sunny  glow  of  the  heart's  true  love  on 
every  pathway  of  life — that  is  at  once  the  sign  and 
seal  of  a  soul  that  is  saved. 

Thus  while  the  Lord  lights  up  our  life  with  love, 
when  love  is  triumphant  in  the  world  of  the  heart, 
it  is  faith  which  lights  the  path  when  all  is  dark. 
When  we  are  happy,  when  we  are  loving,  when  we 
are  in  states  of  elevated  spiritual  feeling,  when  it  is 
day  time  for  the  soul,  we  feel,  and  see,  and  recognize 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  89 

the  Lord  as  lighting  with  his  love  our  world  of  life. 
I  speak,  of  course,  of  those  who  do  recognize  God's 
providence  as  permeating  all  our  ways.  But  when 
all  is  dark  and  hope  is  waning,  and  evils  overflow 
our  heart-land,  and  even  outivard  life  seems  all  un- 
hinged— when  it  is  night  time  on  the  soul,  then  the 
faith  we  have  that  God  is  true,  the  faith  we  hold  in 
his  mercy  and  love  as  things  that  never  die,  the 
faith  we  still  maintain  that  the  night  will  pass  away 
and  the  day  will  come — that  faith  sustains  us  in 
adversity,  in  trial,  in  temptation,  in  doubt,  yea 
raises  us  even  from  the  depths  of  despair.  Thus  it 
is,  that  with  him  who  has  so  far  progressed  on  the 
upward  way  of  regeneration,  it  is  the  sun,  or  love 
of  God,  which  rules  in  the  soul  by  day,  but  the 
moon,  or  faith  in  God,  which  rules  therein  by  night. 
That  the  stars  symbolize  knowledges  of  the  Lord 
and  of  what  is  true  and  good  may  be  illustrated  by 
these  considerations:  In  the  absence  of  any  correct 
understanding  of  things,  a  knowledge  of  its  rules 
and  principles  light  our  way  to  some  extent.  As 
I  have  elsewhere  remarked,  knowledge  is  one 
thing,  understanding  what  we  know  another,  and  a 
loving  life  of  what  we  understand  another  still.  We 
may  have  a  knowledge  of  the  customs  of  polite 
society.  They  are  mere  outward  show,  but,  never- 
theless, they  smooth  our  path  in  the  world.  But  if 
we  understand  the  ethics  of  true  kindliness  and  gen- 


The  Parable  of  Creation. 

tleness,  we  can  take  up  the  rules  of  outward  eti- 
quette, and  make  them  beneficent  methods  of 
smoothing  the  rugged  paths  of  others'  lives.  If, 
however,  we  love  from  our  hearts  to  live  and  walk 
through  life  for  the  sake  of  strewing  sunshine  and 
flowers  and  deeds  of  use  o'er  all  the  paths  which 
others  tread,  then  the  inward  ethics  of  true  heavenly 
etiquette  intuitively  come  forth  in  every  moment  of 
our  lives.  So  in  matters  which  concern  our  spirit- 
ual walk,  where  neither  love  nor  faith  shine  on 
c  ur  wandering  way  to  guide  our  devious  steps,  the 
stars  of  the  mere  knowledge  of  what  is  true  and 
good  may  afford  some  glimmering  light  to  help  us 
on.  Thus,  as  in  the  absence  of  sun  and  moon,  night 
may  still  have  its  stars,  comparatively  dim  though 
their  light  may  be,  so,  though  our  love  may, for  the 
time,  be  cold,  and  our  faith  may  halt,  the  bare 
knowledge  of  what  is  true  and  good  will  serve  a 
purpose  in  our  lives,  until  our  faith  and  love  assert 
themselves  once  more. 

When  we  read  the  Scripture  by  these  symbols, 
so  far  as  they  therein  occur,  it  confirms  the  truth  of 
their  symbolism,  as  well  as  throws  light  upon  its 
otherwise  darkened  pages.  It  is  said  for  example 
in  the  Psalm:  "  Praise  ye  the  Lord,  sun  and  moon; 
praise  him  all  ye  stars  of  light. ':  Can  any  one 
believe  that  this  is  designed  as  a  literal  command  to 
sun,  moon  and  stars  to  enter  upon  intelligent  praises 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  91 

of  the  Lord?       Nay;    the  sun,  moon   and  .stars  to 
whom  appeal  is  thus  made  are  set  up  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  mind  of  man.     It  is  a  command  to  all 
mankind  to  let  their  love,  their  faith,  their  knowl- 
edges of  God  and  good,  go  forth  in  the  silent  praise 
which  the  warmth, and  light,  and  clear  shining  of  a 
genuine  spiritual  life  forever  render  to  the  Lord. 
When,  amid  the  higher  and  holier  states  of  life,  the 
heart  arises  to  the  Lord  with  loving  thanks,  whether 
silent  or  expressed,  when,   amid   its  darker  states 
of  trial  and  temptation,  in  unbroken  faith,  it  hopes 
and  trusts  in  Him,  when,  in  the  momentary  lull  of 
either  or  of  both, its  knowledges  of  the  true  and  good, 
of  God  and  heaven,  still  assist  in  the  dispersion  of 
the   gross   darkness    of  merely    natural   life,    then 
do  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  of  the  mind  praise  the 
Lord.     Then  is  the  command  of  the  sacred  psalm 
fulfilled. 

In  that  oft-repeated  prophecy  of  our  Lord  con- 
cerning his  second  coming,  it  is  said,  The  sun 
shall  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her 
light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven. '  Shall 
we  then  entertain  so  foolish  an  idea,  as  that  the 
natural  sunlight  shall  be  obliterated  ;  that  the 
natural  moon  shall  lose  her  power  to  shine  ;  that 
the  myraid  of  stars  which  stud  the  sky,  many  of 
them  inconceivably  larger  than  the  earth  on  which 
we  live,  shall  fall  on  this  one  small  globe  ?  The 


92  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

meaning  is  simply  this:  that  in  the  days  when  our 
Lord  should  make  his  second  coming,  the  sun  would 
be  darkened,  in  the  sense  that  genuine  love  to  the 
Lord  would  cease  to  radiate  from  the  hearts  of  men; 
that  the  moon  would  not  give  her  light,  in  the  sense 
that  true  faith  in  Him  would  cease  to  shine  within 
the  souls  of  men;  and  that  the  stars  would  fall  from 
heaven }  in  the  sense  that  men's  knowledges  of  spirit- 
ual things  would  fall  from  their  high  and  heavenly 
hold  upon  the  human  mind,  and  become  earthly, 
material  and  debased. 

So  the  fourth  day  of  creation,  as  the  parable 
relates,  was  the  setting  up  of  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars,  to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the  night.  And 
the  fourth  stage  of  regeneration  is  when  love  to  the 
Lord,  faith  in  the  Lord, and  knowledges  of  the  Lord's 
truths,  are  set  up  in  the  spiritual  or  internal  mind 
to  rule  the  whole  realm  of  heart  and  mind,  affection 
and  thought. 

Let  us  understand  this  fully.  Shall  we  ask  what 
love  is  ?  It  is  easy  to  feel  what  it  is,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  bring  it  within  the  scope  of  definition. 
Attachment,  preference,  liking,  fondness,  affection, 
are  expressions  of  somewhat  the  same  meaning, 
but  they  do  not  present  the  idea  of  vigor,  warmth, 
depth  or  intensity  which  seems  to  attach  to  the  term 
love.  The  word,  in  all  its  fullness  of  meaning,  is 
absolutely  without  an  equivalent  in  the  language 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  93 

It  is  positively  incapable  of  definition.  Yet  if  we 
have  love  toward  others,  we  know  how  our  hearts 
warm  to  them,  how  we  long  for  their  presence,  how 
we  are  willing  to  drop  all  selfish  considerations  for 
their  sakes,  what  sacrifices  we  are  ready  to  make  to 
render  them  happy,  how  willing  we  are  to  do  and 
dare,  to  work,  to  surrender,  to  live  for  them.  Love 
is  gentle,  kind,  disinterested,  diligent,  constant, 
and  these  in  all  things,  to  the  person  loved.  This, 
of  course,  is  its  highest  type;  but  all  not  thoroughly 
brutalized  have  experienced  it  in  some  degree. 
One  of  the  most  tender  types  of  this  love  is  that  of 
a  mother  to  her  child.  One  of  the  broadest  is  that 
of  love  of  country,  in  whose  behalf  thousands  have 
no  hesitation  in  laying  down  their  lives. 

Let  us  now  apply  this  to  the  Lord.  Let  us  think 
of  Him  as  the  embodiment  of  all  that  is  lovely  and 
wise,  of  all  that  is  true  and  good.  In  any  such 
sense  as  we  approach  our  earthly  friends,  we  cannot 
see  Him,  we  cannot  hear  Him,  we  cannot  touch 
Him;  nor  can  we  have  that  kind  of  sense  of  personal 
devotion  to  Him  which  we  have  toward  those  who 
meet  us  on  our  own  plane  of  life.  But  we  can  think 
of  God  as  our  glorified  Christ;  we  can  hold  Him 
before  our  mental  vision  as  an  infinitely  lovely 
Divine  man;  we  can  send  our  hearts  forth  to  Him  as 
the  one  good  and  true,  from  whom  all  that  is  good 
and  true  comes  down. 


94  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

And  that  is  just  the  point.  He  stands  as  our 
highest  conception  of  infinite  goodness  and  truth- 
of  infinite  love  and  wisdom.  He  has  given  us  his 
commands  of  perfect  life.  In  these  commands  He 
has  embodied  in  words  the  ideal  to  which  He  would 
have  us  attain — an  ideal  which  is  reflected  from 
his  own  person  and  life.  Now  when  we  fall  in  love 
with  that  perfect  ideal  as  personally  represented  in 
Him,  and  as  expressed  in  the  instructions  He  has 
given  us  in  his  Word,  we  have  fallen  in  love  with 
Him.  We  cannot  separate  our  ideal  from  his 
person,  because  in  Him  alone  that  perfect  life  is 
perfectly  revealed.  If  we  drop  his  personality  from 
thought  in  this  connection,  our  ideal  of  perfection 
loses  its  glory  or  sinks  into  something  less  than 
perfect.  It  is  only  as  we  remember  his  description 
of  a  perfect  life  as  embodied  in  his  instructions,  and 
apply  them  to  Him,  Jesus,  our  incarnate  God,  and 
observe  in  Him  a  complete  realization  of  a  com- 
pletely sinless  life,  that  we  can  fall  in  love  with  the 
absolutely  true  and  good  as  He  would  have  us  do. 
No  mere  man  can  reflect  to  us  that  infinitely  har- 
monious perfection  which  Jesus  can. 

We  know  God,  we  realize  God,  we  think  of  God, 
we  love  God,  only  as  He  is  revealed  to  us  in  Christ. 
Essential  divinity,  as  it  is  in  its  own  infinite  being, 
the  finite  idea  cannot  grasp.  We  can  grasp  it  only 
as  it  is  brought  down  to  our  vision.  We  see  God, 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Failh.  95 

therefore,  ever,  in  thought,  as  Jesus  glorified.  With 
what  is  invisible,  incomprehensible,  unthinkable, 
we  have,  and  can  have,  nothing,  consciously,  to  do. 
The  essential  divinity  is  more  beyond  us  than  your 
soul,  which  I  can  neither  feel  nor  see,  is  beyond  my 
ken.  I  know  you  only  through  your  body,  your 
speech,  your  outward  life.  You  can  know  essential 
Divinity  only  as  the  soul  of  Christ — something  en- 
tirely beyond  aud  above  your  grasp.  But  in  Christ, 
and  through  his  life  and  speech  and  works,  in  that 
Humanity  which  was  made  Divine  and  now  fills 
heaven  aud  earth  and  all  things,  God  becomes 
something  which  we  can  know  of,  think  of,  live 
for,  love! 

So  we  raise  our  hearts  to  this  Divine  Man.  We 
see  his  life  exemplified  in  the  world;  we  hear  the 
ringing  precepts  He  uttered  for  our  guidance  of  old 
and  on  earth;  we  love  the  good  He  lived,  the  truth 
He  taught,  the  life  He  exemplified;  thus,  we  love 
Him.  So  He  himself  has  defined  this  love  in  the 
only  way  in  which  it  can  be  defined,  and  He  has 
said,  "  He  that  hath  my  commandments  and  doeth 
tliem,  He  it  is  that  loveth  me  ; '  -"  If  ye  love  me, 
keep  my  commandments. );  And  if  we  really  love 
the  life  He  offers  for  our  acceptance,  wre  will  keep 
his  commandments.  If  we  do  not,  it  is  because  we 
love  ourselves,  or  the  world's  goods  and  pleasures 
better.  But  when  we  love  them,  or  to  the  degree 


96  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

that  we  love  them,  what  will  we  not  do  for  the  love 
of  the  true  and  the  good,  which  is  the  love  of  God, 
which  we  would  not  do  for  a  friend  ?  Will  not  our 
hearts  warm  toward  it  ?  Will  we  not  long  for  its 
presence  within  us  ?  Will  we  not  drop  all  selfish 
considerations  for  its  sake  ?  Will  we  not  do  all 
things,  dare  all  things,  surrender  all  things,  to  live 
for  that,  and  that  alone.  While  love  for  a  friend 
will  make  us  gentle,  self-abnegating,  watchful, 
diligent,  on  behalf  of  the  person  so  loved;  will  not 
the  love  of  the  good  and  the  true,  for  their  own 
sakes  and  as  exemplified  by  God  on  earth,  make  us 
all  this  and  more,  in  all  things,  and  toward  all  men? 
But  whether  we  say  the  love  of  good,  or  the  love  of 
God,  or  the  love  of  Christ,  is  it  not  all  the  same? 

Now  when  this  love  begins  to  affect  the  soul,  the 
greater  light,  of  which  our  text  speaks,  is  set  up  in 
the  heaven,  or  spiritual  region  of  the  mind,  to  light 
our  steps  along  all  the  pathways  of  life. 

And  what  is  faith  ?  It  is  an  internal  belief  in, 
or  a  certain  conviction  of  the  existence  of,  such  a 
God,  such  a  life,  and  such  a  love.  A  perfect  faith 
has  always  understood,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
realized  that  in  which  it  believes.  It  cannot,  there- 
fore, be  shaken.  It  believes  in  the  goodness  of 
God,  in  his  mercy,  his  love  and  his  providence,  and, 
therefore,  it  sustains  him  who  holds  it  amid  the 
darkest  episodes  of  life.  Whether  misfortunes  come, 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith,  97 

whether  temptations  assail,  whether  doubts  press 
iu,  in  all  these  dark  and  troublous  night-times  of 
the  soul,  that  unshaken  belief  in  God  as  the  only 
good,  and  in  good  as  the  only  life,  sustains  our 
steps.  Faith  alone,  faith  which  has  not  borrowed 
its  light  from  love,  cannot  do  this.  But  a  faith 
that  is  the  reflection  of  genuine  love  once  ours,  can- 
not by  any  possibility  fail  us. 

So,  when  this  belief  in  God  which  is  born  of  love 
has  power  to  sustain  us  amid  our  night-times  of 
life,  the  lesser  light,  the  moon  of  faith,  begins  to 
shine  upon  us  with  its  silvery  radiance.  Set  up 
within  the  spiritual  region  of  the  mind,  it  sheds 
light  upon  our  darkness,  illumines  our  farthest 
pathways,  saves  us  from  snares  and  pitfalls,  and 
carries  us  safely  on  to  another  state  of  newly 
awakened  day. 

Then  those  beautiful  knowledges  of  eternal  things, 
in  their  vast  variety,  thoughts  of  God  the  Lord, 
conceptions  of  a  true  life,  ideas  of  mercy,  love  and 
truth,  far  off  glimmerings  of  a  heaveu  beyond — all 
these  shine  down,  help  our  faith  to  illuminate  our 
mental  world,  maintain  our  light  when  faith  itself 
is  dim,  but  silently  disappear  to  conscious  view, 
when  love  irradiates  the  mind  with  so  large  a  light 
and  warmth,  as  to  point  the  way  to  all  things  with- 
out manifest  intellectual  aid.  Radiant  stars  on  the 
mind's  clear  sky  are  they, whose  lights  reveal  celes- 


98  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

tial  mansions  in  the  world  to  come.  Knowledge 
may  be  ours  and  yet  have  no  illuminating  power. 
To  learn  eternal  truths  is  one  thing.  They  only 
become  stars  along  our  hastening  way  when  they 
are  kindled  into  fires  in  the  firmament  of  the  spirit- 
ual mind. 

Knowledge  is  not  faith;  nor  is  faith,  love.  But 
without  knowledge  there  can  be  no  faith,  and  with- 
out both  no  love.  Knowledge,  faith  and  love  are 
a  trine  of  principles  which  in  their  blended  lights 
dispel  the  last  vestige  of  darkness  from  the  mind. 

So  we  have  groped  our  way  along,  all  in  the 
providence  of  God,  to  our  fourth  state  of  regenera- 
tion. It  is  a  slow  process.  We  came  out  of  dark- 
ness into  light,  but  what  did  we  realize  of  eternal 
things?  We  passed  into  a  capacity  for  grasping 
spiritual  thoughts,  but  what  warmth  or  clearness 
was  there  to  our  new  found  views?  We  brought 
forth  some  fruits  of  a  better  outward  life,  but  what 
was  there  in  our  works  of  genuine  love?  Or  how 
clear  a  faith  had  we  in  the  higher  life  of  good,  or 
the  grander  ways  of  God?  But  now  this  love  and 
faith  are  enkindled  within  the  spiritual  mind,  and 
even  our  knowledge  of  eternal  things  are  lit  with 
living  fire. 

And  so  these  lights  enkindled  thus  serve  to  divide 
between  the  day  and  night — between  the  light  of 
the  true  and  good  and  the  darkness  of  the  false  and 


The  Elevation  of  Love  and  Faith.  99 

evil.  Error  can  no  more  deceive  us;  evil  can  no 
more  palm  itself  off  for  good,  nor  selfishness  for 
virtue.  These  clear-shining  luminaries,  love,  the 
greater  light  for  the  day,  faith  the  lesser  light  for 
the  night,  have  dispelled  all  misconceptions.  And 
they  serve  for  signs  of  our  elevation  and  progress; 
they  mark  the  seasons  of  our  changing  heart-condi- 
tions, and  tell  of  the  days  and  years — the  ever- 
advancing  states  of  truth  and  love.  And  they  are 
set  in  the  firmament  of  heaven — in  the  spiritual 
mind,  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  or  illuminate  its 
every  lower  place  with  spiritual  radiance. 

Then  the  previous  state,  when  true  love  and  genu- 
ine faith  were  not  as  yet  possessed,  is,  as  compared 
with  the  present  state  of  love  and  faith,  as  evening 
shadow  to  morning  light.  And  God  sees  that  it 
is  good.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning — this 
new  advance  from  comparative  obscurity  into  clearer 
light,  are  the  fourth  day — the  fourth  progressive 
state  into  which  all  who  press  on  in  the  regenerate 
life  will  come. 

Is  life  a  mystery?  Are  its  paths  all  darkness  and 
unrest?  Not  to  those  who  have  made  even  the 
beginnings  of  a  life  of  love  and  faith.  Is  there  any 
light  for  the  soul?  Is  there  a  way  out  of  the  shadows 
which  obscure  our  wanderings?  Yes;  love  throws 
a  radiance  over  life  which  dispels  all  clouds;  faith 
lights  up  its  skies  amid  its  gloomiest  nights;  true 


ioo  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

knowledge  reveals  bright  homes  in  everlasting 
worlds  beyond  the  one  in  which  we  linger  now. 
And  in  that  knowledge,  faith  and  love  the  Lord 
lives  and  reigns  supreme.  Gain  these  and  you  have 
left  the  lower  levels  of  a  false  life  behind,  and  all 
things  beckon  you  onward  in  your  advancing  way. 


V. 

THE  SOUL  BECOMES  A  LIVING  THING. 

And  God  said,  Let  the  ^vaters  bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving 
creature  that  hath  life,  and  fowl  that  may  fly  above  the  earth  in 
the  open  firmament  of  heaven.  And  God  created  great  whales,  and 
every  living  creature  that  moveth,  which  the  waters  brought  forth 
abundantly,  after  their  kind,  and  every  winged  fowl  after  his  kind\ 
and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  God  blessed  them,  saying,  Be 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  fill  the  waters  in  the.  seas,  and  let  fowl 
multiply  in  the  earth.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
fifth  day.— Gen.  I:  20-21 . 

The  subject  of  the  regeneration  is  one  of  the  ut- 
most interest  and  importance.  Our  Lord  said,  '  'Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom 
of  God.':  Why  should  it  not  be  so?  The  new-born 
babe  is  ushered  on  to  its  this-world  existence  a  weak, 
unformed  thing.  Its  body  is  formed,  indeed,  but  not 
its  mind.  It  has  been  born  into  the  kingdom  of  nature; 
it  has  yet  to  be  reborn  and  that  into  the  kingdom 
of  mind.  When  this  takes  place,  and  the  once 
immature  babe  becomes  a  knowing,  thinking 
and  reasoning  being,  it  has  but  partially  fulfilled 
its  destin)^.  It  can  live  in  this  world,  and  use  its 
knowledge  of  natural  things  with  decision  and  skill; 
it  has  entered  largely  on  to  the  realm  of  this  world's 


i .02  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

thought;  but  it  has  again  to  be  re-born.  This  time 
the  birth  is  into  the  realm  of  spiritual  thought. 
These  things  are  progressive.  There  can  be  no 
rational,  thinking  being  until  the  physical  body  is 
formed.  There  can  be  no  spiritually  minded  being 
until  thought  and  reason  as  natural  things  are  de- 
veloped. The  one,  in  each  case,  constitutes  a  found- 
ation, as  it  were,  on  which  the  other  may  rest. 

Spiritual  thought  and  natural  thought,  spiritual 
aspiration  and  natural  aspiration,  a  spiritual  life  and 
a  natural  life,  belong  to  distinctly  different  faculties 
of  mind.  After  the  natural  mind  is  born  and  formed, 
the  spiritual  mind  must  be  born  and  formed.  This 
is  the  rebirth — the  regeneration,  of  which  our  I^ord 
spake,  when  He  said  "Except  a  man  be  born  again, 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God.':  To  see  the 
kingdom  cf  God  is  to  see  spiritual  things.  It  is 
to  understand  them  when  presented  to  the  mind. 
It  is  to  be  able  to  revolve  them  rationally  in  the 
thought,  to  grasp  them,  to  enjoy  them,  so  as  finally 
to  come,  in  matters  of  every  da)'  life,  into  their 
living  spirit  and  purpose. 

But  the  kingdom  of  God  extends  into  the  hereafter 
as  well  as  has  its  beginnings  here.  Our  ability  to 
enter  upon  its  joys  in  the  world  to  come  depends 
upon  the  harmony  of  our  minds  with  its  principles, 
purposes  and  uses.  It  is  not  so  much  a  question, 
when  we  arrive  there,  as  to  how  much  punishment 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living  Tiling.          103 

ought  to  be  meted  out  for  our  short-comings,  or 
how  much  reward  for  our  well-doing,  as  it  is:  Has 
the  mind  learned  to  see  spiritual  things — spiritual 
principles,  ideas  and  uses,  or  has  it  not?  Is  the  mind 
in  harmony  with  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  is  it  not? 
Has  it  entered  into  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  that 
which  essentially  constitutes  the  heavenly  kingdom, 
or  has  it  not?  You  might  as  well  ask  the  Hottentot, 
who  has  no  musical  development  above  his  tom-tom, 
to  enter  into  the  refined  enjoyment  of  the  strains  of 
Mendelsohn  or  Mozart,  as  to  invite  a  merely  nat- 
ural or  sensuous  man,  when  he  enters  upon  the  other- 
world  life  to  partake  of  the  spiritual  joys,  associa- 
tions, thoughts  or  uses  of  the  heavenly  kingdom. 
He  would  neither  understand,  appreciate  or  enjoy 
them.  It  is  requisite  that  one  should  be  born  again 
to  see  the  kingdom  of  God.  Properly,  this  spiritual 
development  should  be  made  on  earth.  It  is  as 
much  designed  of  God  that  the  natural  man  should 
become  a  spiritual  man,  as  it  is  that  the  physical 
babe  should  become  a  rational  being. 

If,  then,  it  be  true,  that  earth  life  is  educational, 
looking  to  the  preparation  of  the  individual  for  the 
never-ending  existence  which  awaits  him  in  the 
world  to  come,  it  is  the  one  great  theme  from  which 
the  mind  should  never  be  wholly  averted.  No  one 
who  leans  in  the  least  degree  toward  the  doctrine  of 
the  superiority  of  spiritual  things  can  doubt  this. 


IO4  Th*  Parable  of  Creation. 

As  the  regeneration  of  the  soul  is  first  in  interest 
as  it  respects  human  welfare,  it  becomes,  therefore, 
by  right  of  priority,  the  first  spiritual  lesson  we 
ought  to  learn.  We  would  naturally  expect  to  find 
a  statement  of  its  general  phases,  in  the  very  open- 
ing chapter  of  the  Word  of  God.  In  this,  do  we 
but  view  the  matter  aright,  we  will  not  be  disap- 
pointed. The  narrative  of  the  Creation  is  but  a 
parable  of  the  regeneration.  The  earth  is  a  symbol 
of  the  human  mind.  The  statement  that  at  the  be- 
ginning all  was  dark  and  void,  sets  forth,  in  symbolic 
language,  the  mind's  utter  ignorance  and  emptiness 
of  spiritual  things  before  its  regeneration  begins. 
The  fact  that  at  the  very  outset  of  Creation  light  was 
flashed  across  the  earth  represents  that  at  the  very 
outset  of  regeneration,  in  the  case  of  each  one, light 
is  thrown  upon  his  mind  as  to  the  superiority  of 
spiritual  life  and  knowledge  over  that  which  is 
merely  natural.  The  development  of  the  firmament 
or  natural  heaven, typifies  the  opening  of  the  higher 
or  heavenly  mind  of  spiritual  observation  and 
thought.  The  springing  forth  of  grass  and  the 
growth  of  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit  denote  the  first 
buddings  and  incipient  fruitage  of  a  good  life  under 
the  more  elevated  principles  now  recognized.  The 
setting  up  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  in  the  firma- 
ment of  heaven  symbolizes  the  elevation  of  love, 
faith  and  spiritual  knowledge  as  the  guiding  and 


7 he  Soul  Becomes  a  Living    Thing.          105 

controlling  elements  of  the  regenerating  individual's 
life. 

The  regeneration  of  the  human  mind  is,  therefore, 
progressive.  It  proceeds,  as  Creation  proceeded,  by 
distinct  steps.  The  four  days  of  Creation  symbolize 
four  successive  stages  of  regenerative  advance.  First, 
some  higher  spiritual  light  was  thrown  upon  the 
mind;  second,  the  spiritual  mind,  or  the  faculty  for 
the  perception  of  spiritual  things,  was  developed; 
third,  good  actions  and  a  better  life  resulted;  fourth, 
love,  faith  and  knowledge,  like  great  lights  and 
stars  of  brilliant  shining,  lit  up  the  life  with  their 
beautiful  radiance.  All  this  has  been  fully  illus- 
trated and  explained  in  previous  lectures.  We  now 
come  to  the  fifth  state  of  regeneration  represented 
by  the  fifth  day  of  Creation.  In  this  state  the  man's 
spiritual  condition  begins,  at  last,  to  exhibit  signs 
of  genuine  life. 

But  was  not  the  individual  really  alive  before? 
Naturally  speaking,  yes;  spiritually  speaking,  no. 
In  all  the  business,  work,  pleasures,  ambitions  and 
aspirations  of  the  world,  yes;  in  the  higher  and 
more  inward  ends,  desires  and  motives  of  life,  110. 

And  what  is  it  to  be  alive?  We  ask  this  question, 
of  course,  in  a  sense  above  that  which  attaches  to 
the  idea  of  merely  physical  life.  There  is  a  phrase 
much  affected  of  late  years  which  illustrates  the 
point.  We  hear  of  live  political  parties — these  are 


io5  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

such  as  drop  dead  issues  and  deal  vigorously  with 
the  living  questions  of  the  day;  of  live  newspapers 
-these  are  such  as  are  enterprising  in  gathering  all 
the  news  that  interests,  and  in  a  racy  handling  of 
the  topics  of  the  times;  of  live  men — these  are  ener- 
getic, earnest,  pushing  people,  who  rest  not  until 
they  accomplish,  and  that  successfully,  whatever 
ends  they  undertake.  The  expression  has  come 
down, in  a  reflected  form,  from  the  ancient  language 
of  symbolism,  in  which  the  Scriptures  are  written. 
Only,  in  them  the  phrase  is  always  spiritually 
applied. 

There,  living  things  are  such  as  are  touched  by 
the  breath  of  God.  Natural  things  are  held  to  be, 
in  themselves,  dead.  A  dead  man,  in  the  light  of 
the  Word  of  God,  is  one  who  is  given  over  to  sel- 
fishness and  w^orldliness.  A  live  man  is  one  who 
has  dropped  the  old,  dead  issues  of  a  merely  natural 
life,  and  deals  vigorously  with  the  living  issues 
which  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  world  and  his 
own  soul  presents.  He  is  enterprising  in  gathering 
unto  himself  the  living  truths  that  relate  to  higher 
life.  He  is  energetic,  earnest,  pushing,  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  regeneration  of  his  own  soul  and  the 
leading  of  the  world  on  to  higher  levels.  He  is 
alive  to  everything  of  spiritual  import  and  eternal 
issue,  because  his  faith  in  the  Lord  is  established, 
his  love  to  the  Lord  has  taken  some  absolute  form, 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living   Thing.         107 

and  his  knowledge  of  spiritual  things  is  becoming 
varied  and  extended.  The  sun  of  love  and  the 
moon  of  faith  are  set  upon  the  firmament  of  his 
spiritual  mind,  and  new  stars  of  knowledge  come 
brightly  shining  forth  upon  his  intellectual  horizon 
with  every  advancing  state. 

These  terms  living  and  alive  come  forth  in  their 
symbolic  significance  so  plainly  in  the  Scripture  that 
there  is  no  mistaking  them.  Thus  the  one  Lord 
is  there  recognized  as  life  itself  and  consequently 
the  only  source  of  life.  This  is  true  naturally  and 
spiritually.  Especially  is  it  true  that  He  is  the  only 
source  of  spiritual  life,  because  that  is  the  more  real. 
Therefore,  in  the  Word,  the  "Lord  is  called  the  living 
God,  Him  that  liveth  forever.  He  is  also  called  the 
Fountain  of  Life,  and  the  Fountain  of  Living 
Waters.  And  heaven  which  is  heaven  only  by 
virtue  of  its  inhabitants  receiving  his  life,  is  called 
in  many  places  "the  land  of  the  living.''  The  term 
living  waters  is  often  used  to  indicate  those  spiritual 
truths  which  lead  to  everlasting  life.  In  this  view 
our  Lord  said  to  the  Samaritan  woman,  "  If  thou 
kn,ewest  who  it  is  that  saith  to  thee,  Give  me  to 
drink;  thou  wouldest  have  asked  of  him,  and  he 
would  have  given  thee  living  water. '  Living  bread 
Js  the  Lord's  spiritual  life  receivecPas  the  nourish- 
ment of  the  soul.  Said  He,  "I  am'the  living  bread 
which  came  down  from  heaven;  if  any  man  eat  of 
this  bread  he  shall  live  forever.'  Living  men  are 


io8  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

those  who  think  and  act  under  the  influence  of  the 
genuine  spirit  of  the  Lord  and  his  commandments. 
In  this  view  the  Apostle  said,  "Likewise  reckon  ye 
also  yourselves  to  be  dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive 
unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.' 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  indicating  the  gen- 
uine spiritual  meaning  of  this  term  as  used  in  the 
Scripture,  because  upon  it  hinges  the  signification 
of  the  description  of  the  fifth  stage  of  man's  regen- 
eration as  contained  in  the  parable  of  creation.  So 
you  will  observe  that  while  man  may  be  naturally 
alive,  and  perform  his  natural  duties  with  energy 
.and  enterprise,  without  a  single  spark  of  living  fire 
from  off  the  altar  of  God,  he  can  be  spiritually  alive 
only  as  he  lives  in  the  love,  faith  and  knowledge  of 
God,  and  performs  all  duties,  natural  and  spiritual, 
in  their  light  and  under  their  influence. 

In  the  early  stages  of  regeneration,  we  begin  to  do 
right,  because  we  think  we  ought  so  to  do,  but  we 
do  not  exactly  do  it  from  the  living  fire  of  God 
within  the  heart.  We  recognize  the  Lord;  we  study 
his  commands;  \ve  try  to  be  just  to  the  neighbor 
and  punctual  to  our  religious  duties.  But  we 
do  not  see  them  from  love,  nor  do  we  much  enter 
into  the  deep  spirit  of  their  meaning  and  practice. 
While  we  are  perfectly  willing  to  say  that  all  our 
good  is  from  the  Lord,  we  feel  it  as  our  own.  And 
while  we  are  free  to  admit  that  our  regeneration  is 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living   Thing.         109 

the  Lord's  work  upon  the  soul,  we  are  in  a  strong 
sense  of  our  own  efforts  to  that  end.  So  much  so  is 
this  the  case  that  our  consciousness  is,  all  the  time, 
that  it  is  our  own  work.  At  this  stage  of  regenera- 
tion it  necessarily  must  be  so.  And  we  also  speak 
the  language  of  self-conscious  effort, because  in  that 
state  a  higher  language  would  almost  savor  of 
hypocrisy.  We  feel,  therefore,  our  good  as  our  own 
effort,  and  not  as  that  of  the  Lord  in  us,  we  being 
simply  co-operators;  and  we  recognize  the  truths  we 
obtain  as  light  gained  by  our  own  studies,  and  not 
as  light  shed  down  from  a  Divine  source  through 
the  higher  firmament  of  the  mind. 

This  is  one  of  the  stages  of  our  progress  which 
cannot  possibly  be  avoided.  We  may  hear  the 
higher  idea  preached  and  fully  assent  to  it,  and  yet 
we  will  fail  to  realize  it.  We  will  grow  into  that. 
But  it  is  not  an  exceedingly  vivified  state.  The 
waters  of  truth  may  flow  into  the  mind  but  the}'  are 
hardly  living  waters.  Light  may  shed  its  radiance 
upon  the  firmament  of  the  spiritual  mind,  but  it  is 
scarcely  living  light.  The  soul  may  be  touched 
with  the  higher  truth,  and  its  affections  may  be 
stirred  to  reach  forth  for  the  higher  life,  but  it  can- 
not, in  a  proper  sense,  be  called,  as  yet,  a  living 
soul. 

Now  in  this  parable  of  regeneration,  the  lower 
state  I  have  thus  delineated  is  described  by  the 


no  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

vegetation  created  on  the  third  day;  but  the  higher 
state,  when  one  is  conscious  of  all  his  truth  as  the 
light  of  God  and  of  all  his  goodness  as  the  influence 
of  the  Lord,  is  described  and  represented  by  the 
living  soul  which  the  waters  brought  forth. 

For  our  present  purpose,  I  prefer  the  exactly 
literal  translation  of  the  original  Hebrew  given  by 
Swedenborg  to  that  of  the  authorized  version.  In 
the  latter  it  reads,  ' '  Let  the  waters  bring  forth 
abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath  life.' 
But  the  accurate  rendering  is,  to  give  in  English  the 
precise  force  of  the  Hebrew  words,  ;'Let  the  waters 
bring  forth  abundantly  the  creeping  thing,  the 
living  soul.'  It  is  this  term,  "  living  soul,' :  which 
gives  force  and  point  to  the  idea.  The  regenerating 
individual  becomes  now,  in  this  stage  of  progress,  a 
truly  living  soul.  In  a  certain  sense,  vegetation, 
indeed,  has  life,  but  it  is  an  utterly  unconscious  life. 
It  represents,  in  a  happy  manner,  one's  first  efforts 
at  good  action,  because  he  is  unconscious  of  the 
Lord's  presence  in  those  first  efforts.  They  are  not 
truly  and  spiritually  alive,  becau.se  the  conscious 
feeling  is  that  their  motive  springs  originate  in 
himself.  The  Lord's  higher  influence  is  not  at  all 
perceptible  in  them. 

But  when  the  man  essays  to  speak  and  think 
from  a  genuine  faith,  and  to  will  and  act  from  real 
love,  he  then  begins  to  be,  in  an  elevated  spiritua 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living   Thing.         1 1 1 

sense,  a  living  soul.  His  first  beginnings  of  religous 
life  were  mere  spiritual  vegetation,  a  state  in  which 
he  possesses  no  consciousness  of  the  Lord  as  the  life 
of  all  that  is  true  and  good  within  him,  just  as  nat- 
ural vegetation  has  no  consciousness  whatever  of 
the  life  that  makes  it  lovely.  But  in  the  advanced 
stage  to  which  I  now  refer  all  this  is  changed.  He 
feels  a  consciousness  that  all  his  life — that  all  his 
truth  and  goodness,  is  but  the  Lord's  influence 
within  him,  just  as  the  things  of  animate  creation- 
the  beasts  and  birds — move  on  in  the  conscious  en- 
joyment of  the  physical  life  they  possess. 

This  is  not  a  difficult  thought  to  grasp  even 
though  one  may  not  ha^  arrived  at  so  high  a  state. 
We  well  know  how  common  it  is  to  move  along 
through  life  just  as  though  there  were  no  living  soul 
of  God  within  it.  We  buy,  we  sell,  we  sing,  we 
dance,  we  hold  social  converse,  we  perform  religious 
acts,  just  as  though  ive  did  it  all.  Yet  the  very 
blood  is  coursing  through  our  veins,  the  heart  is 
beating  in  rythmic  cadence,  breath  comes  and  goes 
with  each  expansion  and  contraction  of  the  lungs, 
without  a  conscious  effort  of  our  own;  for  there  is  a 
life  within  and  behind  it  all  which  works  away,  with 
no  consultation  on  the  subject  with  our  thought  and 
will.  In  mental  life  it  is  the  same.  The  mind 
works  on  and  man  has  not  the  power  to  stop  it.  He 
may  lead  it,  guide  it,  but  even  a  self-inflicted  bullet 


112  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

through  the  brain  will  not  cause  the  throbbiugs  of 
a  once  created  mind  to  cease.  It  still  works  on  and 
it  works  forever.  It  is  the  energy  of  God  within 
and  behind  this  individuality  of  ours.  Yet  who 
thinks  of  it?  Who  takes  conscious  cognizance  of 
its  presence?  Who  does  otherwise  than  live  and 
work,  as  though  this  life  was  all  his  own?  True 
we  have  individuality,  and  we  influence  the  course, 
each  one  of  his  own  life,  but  who  looks  behind,  in 
common  thought,  at  the  concealed  springs  of  exist- 
ence which  lie  within  that  individuality? 

So  we  look  forth  upon  the  beauties  of  the  floral 
world,  or  upward  at  the  sunlit  sky.  The  grass 
is  growing  beneath  our  feel*,  the  brilliant  flowers  of 
a  thousand  hues  adorn  our  garden  beds,  the  luscious 
fruit  is  hanging  from  the  bended  boughs,  the  sky  is 
filled  with  light  for  our  coming  and  going  steps, and 
displays  all  forms  of  beauty  to  our  eyes.  But  is 
there  any  conscious  thought  as  we  see,  and  walk,  and 
work  amid  them  all,  that  the  Lord's  never  ceasing 
inflow  of  Divine  life  is  pushing  up  the  grass  on  which 
we  tread,  is  painting  the  blossoms  with  the  pure 
white  or  flaming  red,  with  gold  or  azure  blue,  is 
pouring  the  juicy  current  into  the  hanging  fruit,  or 
is  making  the  world  radiant  with  the  light  which 
illumines  our  daily  walk? 

Do  we  walk  forth  with  the  consciousness  that  it 
is  God  who  by  his  ceaseless  influence  lights  up  the 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living   Thing.         113 

sun,  and  warms  the  soil,  and  forms  the  rain,  and 
as  the  great  supernal  Law  lives  in  all  law,  and  uni- 
versally throbs  through  all  the  laws  which  make 
and  keep  this  universe,  from  its  greatest  to  its  least 
things,  so  wonderfully  grand  and  so  transcendently 
beautiful  ? 

Nay,  we  scarcely  ever  think  of  it.  Yet  if  any 
wise  mentor  calls  our  attention  to  the  fact,  if  \ve 
read  in  some  reverent  book  or  in  the  Word  of  God 
that  we  are  indebted  to  the  Lord  of  the  universe  for 
all  that  glory  of  natural  creation  which  every  where 
surrounds  us,  for  our  knowledge,  our  understanding, 
our  love,  for  the  truth  we  gain  and  the  good  we  get, 
then,  perhaps,  we  will  acknowledge  that  it  is  so. 
But  the  idea  is  not  an  ever  present,  conscious,  living 
idea,  which  lifts  us  in  our  daily  life  above  ourselves, 
and  which  feels  the  breath  of  the  Lord's  mercy  and 
love  in  every  act  of  a  busy  life,  and  along  every  path 
of  a  righteous  \valk. 

But  when  you  have  arrived  at  that  stage  of  spirit- 
ual life  which  is  represented  in  the  parable  by  the 
creation  of  the  living  sou/,  then  the  situation 
changes.  Then  you  begin  to  bear  about  with  you 
the  consciousness  of  the  Divine  origin  of  all  you 
have  and  enjoy,  and  of  the  Divine  presence  in  all 
you  are.  I  do  not  mean  that  your  active  thoughts 
will  at  all  times  be  actively  centered  on  God,  or 
that  in  all  your  discourse  you  will  be  ever  repeating 


ii4  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

your  belief  in  his  agency,  operation  or  influence. 
Spiritual  life  is  an  eminently  practical  thing.  It 
does  not  ask  you  to  be  ever  dreaming  to  the  neglect 
of  your  work,  or  ever  ecstatic  to  the  point  of  forget- 
ting that  you  live  in  the  world  for  the  world.  But 
I  do  mean  that  you  will  feel  the  L,ord  as  you  linger 
amid  his  blessings  just  as  you  know  the  presence  of 
the  sunlight  as  you  walk  the  ways  of  earth,  just  as 
you  realize  the  moon  and  stars  as  above  you  when 
by  their  radiance  you  travel  the  paths  of  night, 
just  as  you  revel  in  the  perfume  of  the  flowers  or 
the  new  mown  hay,  when  you  pass  through  gardens 
or  meadows.  You  may  be  conversing  on  utterly 
incongruous  themes;  your  thoughts  may  run  deeply 
on  the  cares  and  questions  your  worldly  duties  lay 
before  you;  you  may  be  at  play  or  at  work;  yet  they 
are  an  ever  present,  ever  conscious  influence,  which 
is  as  realistic  as  the  sunshine  which  surrounds  yon 
and  as  certain  as  that  you  live. 

So  may  your  spiritual  life  be  saturated  with  the 
consciousness  of  the  L,ord's  presence  and  ownership 
and  influence  in  all  the  good  you  will  or  do,  in  all 
the  truth  you  think  or  say,  in  all  your  faithfulness 
in  work,  steadfastness  in  duty,  sincerity  in  office, 
purity  in  principle,  glowing  love  of  use;  yea  in 
every  ripple  of  laughter,  in  every  enjoyment  or 
pleasure,  in  every  innocent  pastime.  And  though 
thought  does  not  outwardly  nor  actively  think  it,. 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living   Thing.  1 1 5 

iior  speech  actually  frame  it  into  words,  the  heart  is 
full  of  it,  aud  thought  and  speech  will  glow  with  it 
at  the  instant  some  little  circumstance  seems  to 
call  them  forth.  You  live  amid  the  sphere  of  its 
radiance  and  you  bask  in  the  sunlight  of  its  ever- 
lasting presence. 

This  state,  however,  is  one  of  great  spiritual  ele- 
vation. The  fifth  stage  of  regeneration,  the  fifth 
day  of  the  new  creation  of  the  soul,  only  marks  its 
beginnings.  The  state  is  one  which  only  the  high- 
est angels  of  heaven  enjoy  in  its  full  perfection. 
Happy  we,  if  we  can  gain  such  brightening  glimpses 
of  its  truth,  such  occasional  broad  experiences  of 
its  reality,  as  will  lead  us  to  yearn  for  its  presence 
more  and  more.  To  love  a  thing  is  to  get  it  in  the 
end.  For  love  will  compass  all  things;  it  will  tear 
down  impediments;  it  will  break  through  barriers; 
it  will  restlessly  work  until  it  gains  the  object  loved. 
lyove  for  mental  states  once  experienced,  for  heart- 
conditions  which  meet  the  Lord's  approval,  wil 
gain,  in  the  end,  their  permanent  possession. 

So  in  this  fifth  stage  of  progress  toward  a  perfect 
life1,  we  gain  our  conscious  beginnings  of  the  happi- 
ness which  the  soul  may  possess  in  obtaining  a  gen- 
uine faith  in  the  Lord,  and  in  realizing  a  love  for 
Him  and  his  words  of  life.  In  the  fourth  stage,  the 
sun,  moon  and  stars — love,  faith  and  knowledge, 
first  lit  our  shining  way.  In  the  fifth  stage,  the 


n6  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

soul  begins,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  really  spiritual 
sense,  to  live.  Our  love,  faith  and  knowledge  now 
begin  to  become  really  living  energies.  They  give 
spiritual  vitality  to  all  we  desire,  think  and  do. 
True,  they  will  not  prove  to  be  of  the  most  intensely 
vital  kind  even  yet.  Still  there  will  be  stumbling 
and  falling.  Old  states  which  are  of  earth,  earth}-, 
will,  at  times,  cloud,  for  a  brief  while,  the  life. 
Thoughts  of  the  flesh  pots  of  Egypt  will,  occasion- 
ally, lure  us  back  to  our  worldly  ways.  But,  not- 
withstanding this,  we  will  have  here  experienced  a 
consciousness  of  the  Lord's  presence  and  life  in  all 
things  about  us,  in  all  we  have  and  are,  in  our 
faculties  and  powers,  in  our  knowledges  and  affec- 
tions, in  our  aspirations  and  desires,  which  will 
create  a  longing  for  the  time  when  we  can  rest  for- 
ever in  Him.  To  rest  in  Him  is  to  rest  in  this  con- 
sciousness of  his  perpetual  influence  and  presence. 
To  be  alive  then,  spiritually,  is  to  feel  the  Lord's 
presence  and  influence  as  energizing  our  onward 
way.  To  vegetate,  spiritual!}-,  is  to  acknowledge 
the  fact  after  an  intelligent  manner,  but  to  lack  the 
conscious  feeling  of  that  presence — the  realized 
sphere  of  that  influence.  In  this  we  now  see  more 
clearly  by  comparison  the  two  symbolisms — the 
springing  forth  of  vegetation  on  the  third  day  and 
the  bringing  forth  of  living  creatures  on  the  fifth 
day.  The  one  is  the  correspondence  under  which 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living    Tiling.          117 

the  earthly  phases  of  regenerative  life  are  described, 
the  other,  the  spiritual  figure  under  which  this  later 
and  higher  phase  of  progress  is  set  forth.  The  one 
typifies  that  which  in  its  degree  and  order  is  beauti- 
ful but  inanimate,  the  other  that  w7hich  is  on  an  al- 
together higher  plane,  and  animate  or  truly  living. 

It  is  said  in  the  parable,  "Let  the  waters  bring 
forth  the  creeping  thing,  the  living  soul."  We 
have  had  occasion  to  note  in  previous  lectures,  that 
waters,  throughout  the  Scriptures,  are  symbols  of 
truths.  In  repeating  this  it  must,  of  course,  be 
remembered  that  the  truths  so  symbolized  are  of  a 
spiritual  character  only.  Those  which  the  Lord 
gives,  those  which  teach  of  Himself  and  his  ways, 
those  which  tell  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and 
the  nature  of  the  future  life,  those  which  teach  us 
of  regeneration  and  the  true  path  of  Christian  pro- 
gress— those  only  constitute  the  water  of  life  des- 
cribed in  the  Revelation  as  proceeding  cut  of  the 
throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb — those  only  are  the 
waters  which  can  come  in  unto  the  soul. 

(It  is  truth — the  truth  Divine,  which  brings  forth 
every  good  for  man.  Looking  at  the  matter  from  a 
natural  point  of  view  merely,  w7e  can  do  no  \vork, 
we  can  be  useful  in  no  employment,  we  can  minister 
to  our  fellows  in  no  profession,  until  we  learn  the 
natural  truths  which  cover  that  profession  or  wrork. 
Much  more  is  this  spiritually  so.  Our  minds  are 


ii8  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

elevated  to  the  Lord  by  every  truth  we  gain  with 
regard  to  Him.  Our  characters  grow  stronger  in 
the  study  of  his  nature  and  character.  We  become 
regenerate,  and  thus  fulfil  the  destiny  for  which  we 
were  born,  by  learning  the  truths  He  gives  us  in  his 
Word  and  by  living  in  their  light.  We  become 
spiritual  minded  by  coming  into  their  spirit.  "Let 
the  waters  bring  forth  '  means,  therefore,  in  the 
language  of  spiritual  symbolism,  "  Let  the  truths 
you  have  gained  bring  forth  their  appropriate  re- 
sults.1 You  have  learned  much,  it  is  now  time  you 
live  much.  You  have  arrived  at  a  stage  of  regen- 
eration where  the  truths  you  have  acquired  must  be- 
come living  truths. 

This  shows  the  importance  of  penetrating  to  their 
utmost  depths,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  Divine  truths 
we  gain.  While  it  is  a  fact  that  truth,  without  a 
correlative  leading  on  to  life,  is  worthless  and  dead, 
it  is  also  a  fact  that  the  more  truths  with  regard  to 
the  Lord  and  eternal  life  we  can  acquire,  the  more 
we  will  be  enabled  to  live  spiritually,  regeneratively, 
usefully. 

So  it  is  said,  "  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abund- 
antly' The  broader  the  waters  the  greater  the 
abundance  of  life  they  can  bring  forth  and  support. 
The  broader  our  field  of  spiritual  truth,  the  broader 
the  field  of  useful,  and  therefore  spiritual,  works 
we  will  find  spreading  forth  to  view.  Indeed,  the 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living  Thing.          119 

very  attempt  to  live  what  we  know,  makes  the  life 
more  abounding  in  results  of  good,  and  this  without 
limit  and  without  stint. 

But  it  is  said,  "Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abund- 
antly the  creeping  thing,  the  living  soul.''  Yes;  it  is 
to  the  intent  that  we  may  become  living  souls  that 
all  this  work  goes  on.  Of  what  avail  our  knowledge, 
our  activity,  our  energy,  our  enthusiasm,  unless  it 
goes  forth  at  last  into  genuine  spiritual  life  ?  Of 
what  avail  the  possession  of  a  soul  unless  that  soul 
is  made  alive  in  the  light  of  God?  It  is  something 
to  be  born;  but  it  is  something  more  to  be  born  again. 
It  is  something  to  have  this  body  live,  but  it  is  in- 
finitely more  to  have  the  soul  alive.  Life  is  God; 
and  God  is  life.  That  life  may  be  filtered  through 
all  the  lower  strata  of  thought  and  purpose,  so  that 
it  partake  of  ail  the  filthiness  which  inheres  in  stag- 
nant things;  or  it  may  be  obtained  at  the  fountain 
head,  pure  as  the  spring  from  whence  it  flows, 
sparkling  as  the  light  that  flashes  from  its  spray. 
The  nearer  we  get  to  the  source,  the  purer  the  life. 
The  purer  the  life  we  draw,  the  more  eternally  liv- 
ing the  soul.  When  the  waters  of  God  within  the 
man  bring  forth  the  living  soul — the  soul  as  a  thing 
to  all  intents,  in  its  Divine  purity,  alive — man  then 
begins  to  be  a  man. 

The  living  soul,  however,  is  here    called  a  creep- 
ing thing,  because  the  man  at  this  stage  of  regener- 


i2o  'The  Parable  of  Creation. 

ation,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  walk  erect,  but  only  to 
creep.  ' '  You  must  learn  to  creep  before  you  can 
walk'  is  an  old  adage.  It  is  as  true  of  regen- 
eration as  of  physical  life.  Though  we  have  learned 
now,  in  a  higher  sense,  to  live,  though  we  have 
gained  a  consciousness  of  the  Lord's  life,  though  we 
begin  to  realize  our  goodness  and  truth  not  as  our 
own  but  as  the  Lord's  in  us,  this  life,  this  con- 
sciousness, this  realization,  in  comparison  with  what 
they  w7ill  be,  are  still  feeble.  Before,  we  were  not 
even  living  souls.  Though  now  endued  with  life,  we 
are  yet  mere  babes  in  Christ.  We  can  creep,  not 
walk.  This  is  at  first;  afterward  we  will  do  better. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  how  gradually  this  parable 
of  regeneration  leads  us  on .  It  recognizes  no  sudden 
changes  in  our  gathering  strength.  Like  the  growth 
of  a  tree,  however  certain  it  may  be,  it  is  impercept- 
ible. We  cannot  look  into  ourselves  and  sa} ,  "So 
we  were  yesterday  and  so  much  further  we  are  to- 
day.'' Much  less  can  we  say,  "We  were  a  child 
of  the  devil  a  moment  ago,  but  at  this  minute  we 
are  a  child  of  God."  But  it  is  development,  unfold- 
ing imperceptibly,  but  not  ceasing.  It  is  creeping 
before  walking,  learning  before  living,  the  one 
merging  by  invisible  openings  into  the  other,  and 
that  all  the  way  through. 

And  now  it  follows  on  in  our  text  concerning  the 
birds.  "  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living   Thing.         121 

creeping  thing,  the  living  soul,  and  let  the  fowl  fly 
above  the  earth  upon  the  faces  of  the  expanse  of 
the  heavens."  I  use  here  again  the  more  literal 
rendering  from  the  Hebrew  which  Swedenborg 
gives.  The  authorized  version  reads  as  though 
the  waters  brought  forth  the  fowl;  but  in  the  Hebrew 
of  the  original  it  is  not  so. 

Birds  in  the  symbolism  of  Scripture  signify  our 
thought.  They  do  so  because  the  thought,  can  soar 
up  and  away  from  its  surroundings,  even  piercing 
the  realms  of  spirit,  of  heaven,  and  of  God,  as  birds 
fly  above  the  earth  and  waters  into  the  firmament 
above.  "Let  fowl  fly  above  the  earth"  means,  Let 
the  thoughts  of  the  regenerating  man  now  rise 
above  earthly  things,  above  those  that  occupy  the 
lower  mind.  'Upon  the  faces  of  the  expanse  of  the 
heavens,'1  or  "in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven  ' 
means,  Let  them  rise  to  heavenly  and  eternal 
themes,  and  soar  amid  the  regions  of  the  spiritual 
mind  with  broad  and  far-reaching  views  of  the  higher 
truth  of  God,  as  the  bird  in  its  upward  flight  broad- 
ens (its  scope  of  vision  the  higher  it  goes. 

And  then  it  is  said,  "  God  created  great  whales 
(properly  leviathans)  and  every  living  soul  that 
creepeth  which  the  waters  brought  forth  abundantly 
after  its  kind,  and  every  winged  fowl  after  its 
kind.':  The  Leviathan,  as  the  largest  inhabitant  of 
the  deep,  symbolizes  knowledge  in  its  general  or 


122  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

largest  principles.  The  more  alive  we  become  to 
the  spiritual  side  of  things,  the  more  we  gather 
what  we  know  into  general  principles,  and  get  the 
particulars  into  order  and  arrangement  in  the 
thought.  Spiritual  knowledge  becomes  thus  no 
irrational  faith,  no  unformed  scheme,  no  vapid  array 
of  meaningless  phrases,  but  a  grand  scheme  of 
spiritual  philosophy,  complete  in  all  its  parts,  beau- 
tiful in  its  symmetry,  spiritually  approved  by  the 
reason  of  man,  and  worthy  of  God.  The  leviathans 
of  the  mind,  its  grand  conclusions,  its  large  and 
fully  rounded  philosophy,  always  come  last.  The 
more  alive  our  truths  are  the  grander  they  become 
in  character  and  scope.  Not  until  we  enter  into 
living  relations  with  God,  do  the  truth- waters  of 
the  soul  bring  forth  their  leviathans  of  thought. 

Such  is  the  New-Church  interpretation  of  what  is 
related  in  the  parable  concerning  the  fifth  day  of 
Creation.  As  we  ascend  the  mountains  of  regenera- 
tion the  view  becomes  more  broad  and  beautiful. 
If  life  is  so  good  on  the  merely  natural  plane,  on  the 
spiritual  how  infinitely  more  lovely!  To  come  into 
states  of  elevation  where  all  we  know  becomes  in- 
stinct with  the  life  of  God,  and  every  truth,  with 
gentle  light,  points  out  some  duty  to  our  fellow 
man;  where  the  whole  realm  of  mind  is  alive  with 
spiritual  affections,  resolves  and  principles;  where 
the  soul  is  innately  conscious  of  the  Lord  and  his 


The  Soul  Becomes  a  Living-  Thing.          123 

influences  as  urging  them  into  every  form  of  loving 
energy  of  good ;  where  the  thoughts  soar  upward 
into  realms  and  spheres  unknown  to  man  the  animal, 
and  gain  broad  vistas  of  diviner  view,  of  which 
mere  life  for  the  world  and  self  cannot  in  the  most 
remote  degree  conceive — to  come  into  such  states  of 
elevation  throws,  indeed,  a  new  light  upon  the  pro- 
blem of  life  and  man.  Then  we  know  what  life  is 
worth.  Then,  truly,  life  is  worth  the  living! 


VI. 

THE  IMAGE  OF  GOD. 

And  God  said,  Let  tke  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature 
after  his  kind,  cattle,  and  creeping  thing,  and  beast  of  the  earth 
after  his  kind;  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  the  beast  of  the 
earth  after  his  kind,  and  cattle  after  their  kind,  and  evtry  creep- 
ing thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth  after  his  kind:  and  God 
saw  that  it  was  good.  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our 
image  after  our  likeness;  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  f,sh 
of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and 
over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth 
iipon  the  earth.  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him;  male  and  female  created  he  them. 
And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful  and 
multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it:  and  have  domin- 
ion over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  foivl  of  the  air,  and  over 
every  living  thing  that  movetJi  upon  the.  earth.  And  God  said, 
Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing  seed,  which  is  upo?t  the 
face  of  all  the  earth,  and  every  tree,  in  the  ivhich  is  the  fruit  of  a 
tree  yielding  seed;  to  you  it  shall  be  for  meat.  And  to  every  beast 
of  the  earth,  and  to  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  thing  that 
creepeth  upon  the  earth,  wherein  there  is  life,  I  have  given  every 
green  herb  for  meat:  and  it  was  so.  And  God  saw  every  thing  that 
he  had  made,  and,  behold,  it  ivas  very  good.  And  the  evening 
and  the  morning  were  the  sixth  day. — Gen.  I:  24-31 . 

IN  five  previous  lectures,  in  review  of  the  story 
of  the  creation,  as  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  we  have  traced  the  narrative  in  detail  as  a 


7 he  Image  of  God.  125 

parable  of  the  regeneration  of  the  human  mind. 
The  five  days  were  found  to  represent  five  advan- 
cing stages  of  spiritual  progress,  through  which  each 
individual  must  pass  who  seeks  to  gain  the  higher 
life.  In  other  words,  the  states  and  experiences 
through  which  the  regenerating  man  must  pass  are 
typified  by  the  days  of  creation.  He  begins  in  a 
state  of  darkness  with  reference  to  spiritual  things. 
The  first  advance  which  is  made  by  his  mind  is 
into  some  light  of  truth,  especially  as  to  the  higher 
value  of  a  knowledge  of  God  and  eternal  life.  The 
second  is  to  gain  some  ability  to  comprehend  spirit- 
ual ideas.  The  third  is  to  commence  a  reformation 
of  the  outward  life  under  their  influence.  The 
fourth  is  to  acquire  that  faith  in  the  Lord,  and  that 
love  for  Him  which  is  necessary  to  a  truly  spiritual 
walk  with  God.  The  fifth  is  to  lead  a  true  and 
noble  life  under  a  strong  rational  consciousness- 
an  inward  absolute  intellectual  conviction,  of  the 
glory  and  beauty  of  this  higher  faith  and  love. 

These  steps  are  each,  in  their  turn,  pronounced 
by  the  Lord  to  be  good.  And  they  are.  But  what 
is  good  in  its  degree  is  not  always  the  perfection  of 
its  kind.  A  seed  hid  away  in  the  damp,  dark  earth 
is  good.  The  first  shoot  it  sends  upward  into  the 
realm  of  light  is  good.  The  noble  trunk,  its  pillar 
of  strength,  is  good.  The  spreading  branches  reach- 
ing far  and  wide  around  are  good.  So  is  its  leafage. 


126  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

So  is  its  flowering.  But  its  great  perfection  and  its 
final  use  are  developed  only  when  it  has  come  to 
that  stage  of  growth  wherein  it  is  able  to  bring  forth 
fruit.  The  fruit  is  the  end  for  which  the  tree  was 
designed  by  its  Creator.  Each  step  of  its  develop- 
ment is  good  as  a  stage  of  progress;  but  it  has  ful- 
filled its  destiny,  it  has  reached  for  the  first  time  its 
highest  perfection  as  a  tree,  when  it  becomes  first 
fruit  laden.  This  also,  in  its  way,  is  a  parable  of 
man. 

And  so  it  was  with  the  earth.  Its  incipient  stages 
of  creation  were  pronounced  by  the  Lord  to  be  good. 
When  the  dry  land  first  made  its  appearance  above 
the  waters,  it  was  good.  When  the  land  brought 
forth  vegetation,  although  animate  life  was  still 
unknown,  it  was  good.  Good  when  the  mists  cleared 
away,  and  sun,  moon  and  stars  shone  down  for  its 
greater  and  more  glorious  light;  good  when  the  fish 
began  to  people  its  waters,  the  birds  to  fly  in  its  at- 
mospheres, and  the  beasts  to  roam  its  grassy  plains. 
But  it  was  not  called  very  good  until  it  had  ad- 
vanced to  a  condition  when  it  was  fit  for  the  habit- 
ation of  man,  and  so  fulfilled  the  object  of  its 
creation. 

The  earth,  in  the  narrative,  is  used  as  a  symbol  of 
the  mind  of  man.,  The  regeneration  of  the  mind 
goes  on  by  steps  parallel  with  the  development  of  the 
tree,  or  the  creation  of  the  earth.  Here  again  each 


The  Image  of  God.  127 

degree  of  progress  is  good  and  our  Lord  so  pronoun- 
ces it.  But  it  is  good  only  as  one  step  more  toward 
perfection,  and  not  in  the  sense  of  perfection  itself. 
Our  first  religious  light  is  good.  So  are  our  first 
clear  conceptions  of  faith  in  God  and  love  to  Him; 
so  are  our  first  creeping  steps  under  a  clear  intellect- 
ual life  of  faith  and  love.  But  the  consummation 
and  crown  of  it  all  is  such  an  affection  for  good  and 
for  God,  as  springs  from  the  Lord  as  the  enthroned 
life,  soul  and  centre  of  the  being.  Our  desires, 
thoughts  and  acts  are  then  saturated  with  the  Spirit 
of  God.  We  are  not  engulfed  in  the  great  ocean 
of  Divinity,  nor  do  we  lose  our  individuality  in  being 
merged  into  the  overwhelming  glory  of  God,  accord- 
ing to  the  Buddhist  doctrine  of  Nirvana.  On  the 
contrary,  the  higher  we  rise  in  our  spiritual  man- 
hood, the  more  distinctly  individual  we  become 
While,  therefore,  in  coming  into  this  much  to  be  de- 
sired state,  our  personality  is  more  and  more  keenly 
felt,  our  trust  in,  and  reliance  on,  the  Lord,  and  our 
perception  ot  Him  as  our  light,  our  life,  our  all,  be- 
come also  more  and  more  inwardty  realized. 

Nor  is  this  the  ordinary  doctrine  of  sanctificatiou 
nor  anything  like  it.  The  accepted  theory  of  what 
is  commonly  called  sanctificatiou  is,  that  the  indi- 
vidual becomes  holy.  The  Scripture,  when  inter- 
preted in  its  true  spirit,  does  not  recognize  that  any 
man  can  ever  become  holv.  God  alone  is  holv.  We 


128  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

may  walk  in  his  light,  we  may  accept  the  influences 
of  his  Spirit,  we  may  act  as  his  stewards  in  dispen- 
sing to  others  the  bounties  which  are  by  Him  so 
plentifully  prepared;  but  the  light  is  his,  the  Spirit 
is  his,  the  bounties  are  of  his  supplying.  Therefore, 
true  regeneration  makes  us  sweet  and  gentle  clothes 
us  with  genuine  humility,  strips  us  of  all  pride  of 
holiness,  expels  every  vestige  of  assumed  sanctity. 
It  draws  no  long  faces;  it  makes  no  large  pretences. 
Genuine  regeneration  never  dwells,  even  secretly  or 
in  the  lightest  thought,  on  its  own  merit,  on  how 
good  it  has  become,  or  compares  itself  in  respect  to 
righteousness  in  any  way  with  its  fellow  man.  It 
knows  that  "there  is  none  good  but  one,  God.' 

The  doctrine  of  sanctification,  as  it  is  usually 
held,  dwells  much  upon  one's  feelings,  upon  his 
states  of  ecstasy,  upon  his  exuberant  exaltations 
above  the  things  of  the  world.  Its  essential  theory 
is  not  so  much  outward  use  as  inward  transport. 
True  regeneration  throws  its  energies  into  uses  and 
lets  feelings  take  care  of  thtmselves.  Or,  more 
properly,  its  thoughts  are  directed  to  doing,  and  do- 
ing under  the  right  spirit,  and  it  leaves  all  other 
things  with  God.  Happiness  conies  it  is  true.  But 
it  is  not  the  selfish  happiness  of  a  contemplation  of 
one's  own  blessedness,  but  that  which  exists  in 
making  others  happy.  It  is  not  a  feeling  of  inward 
bliss  indulged  for  the  sake  of  the  bliss,  but  it  is  the 


The  Image  of  God.  129 

satisfaction  of  seeing  the  good  work  go  on,  the 
heavenly  cause  succeed,  in  the  sphere  of  one's  own 
activities  and  in  all  the  world  around. 

So  far  as  we  can  understand  the  mind  of  God,  his 
infinite  blessedness  must  arise  from  his  infinite  act- 
ivities. No  pent  of  fires  of  self-satisfied  glory  burn 
within  his  soul.  All  He  is  goes  forth.  He  creates 
worlds  ;  his  ceaseless  going  forth  of  life  sustains 
them.  Creation  never  stops.  In  a  single  world 
once  made,  it  is  seed-time  and  harvest  forever,  an 
endless  succession  of  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  Divine 
energies  for  the  benefit  of  man.  He  creates  man; 
and  again  it  is  a  ceaseless  working  en  the  spiritual 
plane  of  his  being  for  his  constant  elevation.  He  not 
only  forms  the  world  of  nature  and  man  as  a 
physical  being,  but  He  forms  the  world  of  souls 
and  man  as  a  spiritual  being.  The  heavens  are 
studded  with  stars.  Each  star  is  a  sun  like  that 
which  rules  our  own  small  planetary  system. 
Around  each  revolves  a  circle  of  planets  peopled  with 
human  beings,  or  some,  perhaps,  preparing  for  that 
end.  The  more  powerful  the)'  make  our  telescopes 
the  more  of  these  planetary  systems  come  forth  to 
view.  No  man  and  no  number  of  men,  improve  your 
telescopes  as  you  may,  will  ever  count  the  myriads 
of  worlds  in  this  grand  universe,  which  are  made  to 
rear  a  human  progeny  for  heaven.  And  as  age  suc- 
ceeds age  a  ceaseless  procession  of  humqn  souls  is 


130  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

passing  from  every  earth  of  this  immeasurable  uni- 
verse of  planetary  spheres  into  the  infinite  world  be- 
yond. The  grandeur  of  the  thought  is  overwhelm- 
ing. And  in  every  time  of  illimitable  space  and  in 
every  state  of  each  one's  life  in  all  these  worlds, 
into  the  universe  of  nature  and  into  that  of  spirit, 
these  Divine  activities  are  flowing,  creating,  sustain- 
ing, developing,  recreating. 

God  is,  therefore,  not  a  self-glorifying  Being.  His 
happiness  is  in  his  goings  forth  for  others,  not  in  the 
contemplation  of  his  own  greatness.  If  we,  then,  are 
actuated  by  his  Spirit,  our  happiness  is  never  in  self- 
satisfaction.  Sanctification  in  any  such  sense  is  a 
delusion  and  a  snare.  The  more  we  forget  ourselves 
in  our  energies  of  use  in  the  field  of  our  surroundings, 
the  more  we  work  in  the  spirit  of  the  Lord.  The 
essence  of  the  religion  of  the  Scriptures,  under  New- 
Church  interpretation,  is  altruism  not  egoism.  And 
of  all  forms  of  egoism  that  which  claims  the  highest 
seat  in  the  synagogue  of  the  Lord  is  the  shabbiest 
and  the  worst,  and  the  very  one  wrhich  was  most 
condemned  of  Christ. 

We  are,  in  our  reflections  upon  this  parable  of  re- 
generation, approaching  its  highest  point.  It  is  well 
that  we  should  not  misunderstand  its  character,  nor 
mingle  it  with  the  crude  misconceptions  of  the  day. 
I  repeat,  thus,  that  in  the  highest  stage  of  regenera- 
tion, the  Lord  becomes  the  enthroned  life,  soul,  and 


The  Image  of  God.  131 

centre  of  the  being.  Our  desires,  thoughts  and 
acts,  are  then  saturated  with  his  Spirit  and  his 
presence.  But  this  spirit  is  wonderfully  altruistic, 
not  egoistic.  It  wanders  forth  to  others  and  forgets 
self,  except  as  our  well  being  and  advance  is  neces- 
sary to  the  great  good  in  view.  This  state  of  mind 
is  the  end  for  which  we  were  born.  And  we  have 
not  attained  the  symmetry  of  true  manhood,  do  not 
bring  forth  fruits  of  a  fully  regenerate  life,  are  not, 
in  the  strict  sense,  men  until  it  has  come  to  this  pass 
with  us.  But  before  proceeding  further  on  this  line 
of  thought,  let  us  consider,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  occur,  the  words  of  the  parable  concerning  the 
sixth  day. 

"And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  liv- 
ing creature  after  his  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing, 
and  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  a?id  it  was  so. 
And  God  made  the  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind, 
and  cattle  after  their  kind,  and  every  creeping  thing 
that  creepeth  upon  the  earth  after  his  kind :  and  God 
saw  that  it  was  good. 

As  we  had  occasion  to  see  in  our  last  lecture,  the 
fifth  day  of  creation  represented  that  stage  of  regen- 
eration where,  under  the  influence  of  a  deep  faith 
in  the  Lord  and  an  earnest  love  for  Him,  the  begin- 
nings of  a  truly  spiritual  life  are  made.  The  earth 
was  said  to  bring  forth  the  living  soul  as  a  symbol 
of  the  mind  making,  in  a  spiritual  sense,  its  first 


132  The  Parable  of  Creation, 

living  efforts.  In  other  words,  the  soul  became,  in 
a  strict  sense,  truly  living  for  the  first  time.  The 
living  soul  was  called  a  creeping  thing,  because  our 
first  living  efforts  at  a  spiritual  life,  are,  as  all  first 
efforts  are,  infant  like,  creeping  rather  than  walking. 
The  birds  were  representative  of  our  thoughts  and 
conceptions  of  spiritual  things,  now  of  a  living  char- 
acter and  of  a  kind,  which,  bird-like,  soar  into  the 
loftier  regions  of  the  mind  and  gain  grand  views  of 
life  and  its  real  purposes. 

Now,  however,  beasts  are  created.  Beasts  are 
symbols  of  affections.  The  creation  of  the  beasts 
on  the  earth  represents  the  creation  of  truly  spirit- 
ual affections  in  the  mind.  In  the  fifth  state  of  re- 
generation we  have  living  conceptions  of  the  Lord 
and  his  truths,  and  from  those  living  ideas  we  think 
and  discourse  after  a  spiritual  manner.  We  have 
deep  faith  in  the  Lord  and  a  clear  insight  into  the 
question  of  what  love  to  the  Lord  means.  We  live 
spiritually,  but  we  love  because  we  have  faith.  Our 
faith  is  the  primary  element  of  our  life  and  our  love 
is  secondary.  We  are  more  on  the  intellectual  plane 
of  religion  yet,  although  our  intellectuality  is  a  liv- 
ing one,  than  we  are  on  the  love  plane.  Bnt  in  the 
sixth  state  all  this  is  changed.  Where  belief  was 
before  the  predominant  principle,  now  affection 
rules.  We  no  longer  love  because  we  believe,  but 
we  believe  because  we  love. 


The  Image  of  God.  133 

This  is  illustrated  by  many  not  uncommon  exper- 
iences. In  the  beginning  of  a  genuine  friendship, 
for  instance,  we  have  learned  to  have  so  thorough  a 
belief  in  a  person  that  we  cannot  help  loving  him. 
We  have  studied  his  character  and  principles;  we 
have  trusted  often  and  have  never  been  deceived, 
and  our  faith  ripens  into  a  love  based  upon  it.  But 
afterward,  when  we  know  our  friend  still  better, 
and  have  touched  the  deeper  chords  of  his  nature, 
and  have  found  our  sympathies  intertwined  on  the 
most  vital  points,  love  becomes  the  controlling  ele- 
ment of  our  friendship.  We  do  not  now  so  much 

^ 

love  him  because  we  have  thorough  faith  in  him, 
but  we  have  faith  in  him  because  our  sympathies 
touch  at  every  vital  point,  thus  because  we  love  him. 
To  believe  in  the  Lord  and  the  life  which  He  com- 
mands, because  we  have  gained  a  clear  and  living 
knowledge  of  Him  and  it,  and  to  love  them  from 
such  faith,  is  a  near  approach  to  the  goal  of  re- 
generation. But  to  enter  into  such  an  intim- 
ate communion  with  Him  that  we  are  all  a- 
glow  with  a  loving  realization  of  his  nature,  and 
thence  to  have  a  most  perfect  faith  in  Him,  is  regen- 
eration. The  one  is  the  flowering  of  the  beautiful 
tree  of  life;  the  other  is  its  fruitage.  The  first  is  re- 
presented in  the  parable  under  consideration  by  the 
creation  of  creeping  things  and  birds;  the  secondjby 
the  creation  of  beasts. 


134  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

That  beasts  are  symbols  of  the  human  affections 
is  not  only  a  fact  easily  deduced  from  Scripture,  but 
it  is  a  remnant  of  the  ancient  method  of  speaking 
which  remains  to  this  day.  This  is  true  both  in  an 
evil  sense  and  a  good  sense.  The  bears  and  the 
wolves  and  the  foxes  of  the  world  are  the  rude,  the 
cruel,  and  the  cunning.  The  swine  of  the  world  are 
those  whose  affections  are  set  on  sensual  things. 
But  the  lion  is  the  type  of  courage,  the  ox  of  meek- 
ness, the  sheep  of  innocence.  So  the  pure  and 
gentle  followers  of  the  Lord  are  called  in  the 
Scripture  the  sheep  of  his  pasture.  He  who  is 
thirsting  for  the  higher  truth,  not  yet  attained,  is 
likened  to  the  hart  panting  after  the  water  brooks. 
And  every  animal  is  used  by  name  in  reference 
to  its  peculiar  spiritual  symbolism.  So  when  the 
Psalm  says,  "Praise  ye  the  Lord,  ye  beasts  and 
all  cattle, "  it  is  not  that  the  dumb  brutes  are 
literally  called  upon  to  offer  praises  to  their 
Creator,  but  that  the  affections  of  the  heart,  of 
which  the  beasts  and  the  cattle  are  the  symbols, 
are  to  go  up  in  praise  to  Him.  Thus  also  here,  in 
the  words  of  the  Creation- parable,  by  the  creation  of 
the  beasts  of  the  earth  is  symbolized  the  bringing 
forth  the  most  exalted  spiritual  affections  of  the 
mind. 

But  the  culmination  of  all  this  is  in  the  creation 
of  man.     To  this  end,    from  the  beginning,   every 


The  Image  of  God.  135 

thing  has  pointed.  For  this  purpose  ever}-  thing 
else  has  been  made.  As  this  is  true  of  the  progress 
of  earth,  so  it  is  true  of  the  advance  of  the  human 
mind.  Every  preparatory  stage  of  regeneration  has 
been  for  the  sake  of  the  one  beyond.  Each  and  all 
have  been  for'the  sakejof  the  final  outcome.  What- 
ever has  taken  place,  little  as  at  the  time  it  has 
seemed  so  to  the  person,  has  been  a  step  to  lead  still 
further  upward  toward  the  summit  life.  All  that 
has  happened  through  a  long  and  eventful  life,  each 
trivial  incident,  each,  even  the  most  obscure,  of  its 
surroundings,  each  changing  state,  was  nothing  in 
and  of  itself.  It  was  valuable  only  in  its  bearings 
on  that  which  was  to  come.  All  knowledge,  all 
study,  all  discipline,  was  worthless,  except  so  far  as 
it  led,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  that.  The  Lord's 
call  to  each  and  every  human  being  that  was  ever 
born  is,  Be  a  MAN. 

Now  we  know  very  well  what  this,  in  ordinary 
parlance,  means.  Be  courageous!  be  earnest!  be 
faithful!  be  honest!  But  in  the  Lord's  view  a  MAN 
is  much  more  than  this.  It  is  the  Lord  alone,  who, 
in  the  highest  signification  of  the  term,  may  prop- 
erly be  called  MAN.  He  only,  in  the  most  eminent 
perfection,  embodies  all  that  is  human.  He  is  per- 
fect Wisdom,  perfect  Love,  perfect  Truth,  perfect 
Goodness.  He  alone  possesses,  in  consummate  and 
limitless  measure,  will  and  understanding,  affection 


136  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

and  intellect.  He  is  THE  MAN.  We  become  men 
only  so  far  as  we  are  created,  or  reborn,  into  his  im- 
age and  likeness. 

And  here  it  will  be  well  to  remark,  that  in  the 
older  tongues — the  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin,  there 
is  a  peculiarity  unknown  to  those  of  modern  times. 
They  possess,  each  of  them,  two  words,  of  different 
form,  which  we  are  obliged  to  translate  by  the  one 
word  man.  The  Hebrew  term  ish  means  man  as 
distinguished  from  woman — a  masculine  being.  But 
the  Hebrew  term  Adam  means  man  in  the  broad 
sense  including  male  and  female,  just  as  we  would 
say,  "Man  is  mortal, ';  meaning  that  every  human 
being,  without  distinction  of  sex,  is  mortal.  Where 
the  term  man,  is  used  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis, it  is  Adam — man  in  the  abstract — man  as  of 
either  sex.  This  relieves  the  text  of  the  idea,  -some- 
times foolishly  advanced,  that  the  Bible  is  man's 
book,  not  woman's,  because  it  speaks  so  much  of 
man.'  The  trouble  lies  in  the  poverty  of  the  Eng- 
lish language  in  reference  to  that  one  expression. 
We  possess  no  separate  word  by  which  to  translate 
Adam.  Man,  therefore,  thus  used,  includes  both 
sexes. 

The  declaration  of  God,  then,  'Let  us  make  man 
in  our  image,  after  our  likeness,"  does  not  refer  to 
one  male  being,  but  to  mankind  at  large.  Nor  does 
it  mean,  in  its  spiritual,  symbolic  sense,  the  first  for- 


The  Image  of  God.  137 

niation  on  earth  of  the  human  race.  It  has  refer- 
ence to  the  rebirth  of  man  into  the  image  and  likeness 
of  God.  It  is  not  said,  simply,  "Letusmake  man,': 
but  it  is  said,  "Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness.'1  Nor,  repeating  the  phrase,  does  it 
simply  say,  "So  God  created  man,''  but  it  says,  "So 
God  created  man  in  his  own  image. ':  The  entire 
reference  is,  in  its  parable  meaning,  not  to  God's 
creating  a  physical  man,  but  to  his  forming  him  in- 
to a  likeness  of  Himself. 

We  have  seen  that,  strictly  speaking,  God  is  the 
only  man.  We  become  men,  not  by  rising  to  his 
level — we  cannot  do  that — but  by  receiving  his 
light  and  love  so  perfectly  and  fully,  that  the  self- 
life  is  removed  from  our  consciousness  and  its  activ- 
» 

ities.  By  the  self-life,  however,  as  a  term  thus  used, 
is  to  be  understood,  not  our  individuality,  nor 
the  distinctive  recognition  of  our  free  agency  as 
rational  beings,  nor  the  necessity  of  self  protection, 
support  and  effort,  but  life  for  the  sake  of  self. 

Before  we  are  regenerated,  we  are  not  men;  we  are 
only  in  die  semblance  and  shape  of  men.  We  are 
not  in  the  human  form,  but  full  of  animal  propen- 
sities, which,  if  extraneous  pressure  were  removed, 
would  level  us  to  an  equality  with  the  brutes.  We 
become  men  only  as  we  advance  into  the  likeness  of 
God;  in  other  words,  only  as  we  become  inwardly 
like  Him.  So  long  as  we  are  still  only  working  up 


138  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

to  the  highest  standard,  although  we  have  reached 
the  sixth  stage  of  regeneration,  and  although  we 
may  properly  be  called  spiritual  men,  we  are  only 
images  of  Him.  When  we  reach  the  highest  state 
and  come  fully  under  his  influences — are  filled  in- 
deed with  his  life  and  love,  then  we  become  likenesses 
of  Him.  So  while,  indeed,  it  is  here  said,  "L,et  us 
create  man  in  our  image  after  our  likeness,"  it  is 
added,  referring  to  the  work  of  the  sixth  state,  "So 
God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of 
God  created  he  him.'  Man  does  not  really  become 
a  likeness  of  God  until  his  seventh  and  highest  stage 
of  regeneration. 

But  it  is  added,  "Male  and  female  created  he 
them."  The  literal  meaning  of  this  I  pass  without 
comment.  But  in  its  spiritual  meaning,  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  every  man,  and  wroman  too,  is,  in  re- 
generation, created  male  and  female.  That  is  to  say, 
in  the  mind  of  each  person  there  exists  the  mascu- 
line and  feminine  element.  The  masculine  element 
of  the  mind  is  intellect  or  understanding;  the  fem- 
inine is  affection  or  will.  In  the  male,  there  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  no  lack  of  affection,  but  reason  or  intel- 
lect should  be  the  ruling  principle.  In  the  woman 
there  is,  or  ought  to  be,  no  lack  of  intellect,  but 
love  or  affection  should  be  the  ruling  principle.  It 
is  not  always  so,  perhaps,  but  so  it  will  be  where  the 
person  of  either  sex  is  in  just  order  of  mind. 


77/f  Image  of  God.  139 

So  each  one  of  all  mankind  is,  in  a  certain  sense, 
male  and  female.  Each  has  intellect  and  affection. 
And  in  each  both  of  these  sides  of  the  nature  are  to 
be  regenerated.  When,  therefore,  it  is  said,  "In 
the  image  of  God  created  he  him,  male  and  female 
created  he  them,'  the  words  are  to  be  understood 
in  this  symbolic  or  spiritual  sense.  In  this  sixth 
stage  of  regeneration  we  have  been,  what  we  had 
not  been  before,  created  into  the  image  of  God.  But 
this  creation  is  not  a  partial  one;  it  is  of  the  mascu- 
line and  the  feminine  elements  of  our  nature  alike. 
That  is  to  say,  our  reason  and  understanding  are  ad- 
vanced to  that  stage  wherein  we  perceive  all  things 
of  life  spiritually,  or  see  its  spiritual  meaning  in  its 
every  phase;  and  our  affections  are  advanced  to  that 
stage  where  they  are  placed  upon  the  Lord  and  spirit- 
ual things.  True,  life  in  the  world  compels  them 
to  go  forth  to  natural  things;  but  now  they  do  it 
in  a  spiritual  manner  only,  and  for  the  sake  of  spirit- 
ual ends.  Thus  the  masculine  element  of  the  na- 
ture, the  intellect,  views  all  things  in  the  Lord's 
light,  and  the  feminine  element,  the  affection,  loves 
all  things  from  spiritual  and  eternal  considerations. 

It  is  said,  "Be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  replen- 
ish the  earth  and  subdue  it."  •  Construing  this  spirit- 
ually,it  is  to  be  understood  thus:  that  when  at  last  the 
niind  comes  into  the  image  of  genuine  manhood,  its 
understandings  of  spiritual  truth  will  indefinitely 


140  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

multiply,  and  its  love  of  good  will  become  wonder- 
fully fruitful  in  spiritual  works.  In  the  beginnings  of 
regeneration  the  mind's  understandings  of  the  truths 
concerning  God,  heaven,  and  eternal  life,  are  feeble 
indeed  and  few.  In  its  outcomes  they  multiply  and 
grow  strong  beyond  any  thing  that  lower  states  can 
conceive  of.  In  the  beginnings  of  regeneration,  the 
spiritual  love  is  but  feebty  fruitful.  In  its  outcomes, 
its  fruit  of  good  works  and  of  ability  to  accomplish 
them  has  developed  beyond  all  calculation.  It  is 
not  the  man,  as  a  physical  being,  who  is  commanded 
to  be  fruitful  and  multiply,  but  it  is  the  spiritual 
manhood  of  the  mind.  It  is  also  commanded  to 
"replenish  the  earth.'  To  replenish  is  to  fill  again. 
The  earth  still  typifies  the  mind.  In  the  course  of 
regeneration,  the  latter  has  cast  out  its  false 
opinions  and  ignoble  loves.  It  is  to  be  replenished 
with  spiritual  ideas  and  heavenly  loves.  The  com- 
mand also  goes  forth  to  man  to  "subdue"  the  earth. 
This  means  that  the  new  manhood  is  to  subdue  all 
its  lower  principles  and  desires,  and  to  bring  all  por- 
tions of  the  mind  into  due  subjection  to  its  high 
behests. 

And  now  man  is  commanded  to  have  dominion 
over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air, 
and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over 
every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth. 
The  regenerated  understanding  and  will,  the  intel- 


The  Image  of  God.  141 

lect  and  affection,  which  have  now  become  an  image 
of  God,  are,  at  this  stage  of  regeneration,  to  assume 
the  dominion.  It  was  the  lower  natnre  which  pre- 
viously ruled.  It  was  self  and  the  world — vanity, 
ambition,  greed  of  power,  lust  of  gain,  desire  of  ap- 
probation, sensuous  pleasure,  or  whatever  the  main 
spring  of  action  might  have  been,  which  had  hitherto 
borne  rule.  But  now  it  is  MAN — perfected  manhood 
-manhood  regenerated  both  as  to  intellect  and 
affection,  regenerated  in  both  its  masculine  and  fem- 
inine phases,  which  is  to  rule  the  whole  realm  of 
the  mind. 

The  true  man  is  the  regenerated  nature.  This  is 
to  have  dominion  over  whatever  in  the  mind  is  sym- 
bolized by  the  fish  of  the  sea,  the  fowl  of  the  air, 
the  cattle,  all  the  earth,  and  every  thing  that  creep- 
eth  upon  the  earth.  The  fish  of  the  sea  are  the 
knowledges  in  the  memory,  the  fowl  of  the  air  the 
thoughts  which  float  through  the  atmosphere  of  the 
mind,  the  cattle  the  affections  of  the  heart,  all  the 
earth  the  entire  realm  of  mind,  and  every  creeping 
thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth,  the  instincts  and 
ideas  that  lay  close  to  the  earth  in  the  very  natural 
duties  and  pleasures  which  a  life  in  the  world  com- 
pel us  to  perform  and  enjoy.  These  are  the  things 
over  which  the  man,  the  regenerated  manhood,  are 
to  have  and  hold  dominion.  Once  these  things,  in 


142  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

their  unregenerate  phases,  ruled  him.     Now,   he  is 
to  rule  them. 

To  carry  the  idea  a  step  higher  ;  in  the  fully  re- 
generated state,  the  whole  nature  is  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Lord,  who  is,  par  excellence,  THE 
MAN!  It  may  also  be  said  that  the  whole  mind,  with 
whatever  is  within  it,  is  under  the  dominion  of  the 
regenerate  nature,  in  which  the  Lord  resides  and  of 
which  He  has  gained  control.  The  individual,  how- 
ever, is  still  left  in  perfect  freedom,  notwithstanding 
this  control  of  the  Lord.  But  it  is  a  freedom  in  which 
the  soul  has,  voluntarily  and  forever,  chosen  the  Lord 
as  his  law,  his  love,  his  guide  to  all  things  good. 

The  concluding  words  of  the  chapter  refer  to  the 
food  which  the  Lord  has  provided  for  man  and 
beast.  The  symbolism  never  halts  or  fails.  The 
herb  and  the  tree  are  symbols  of  the  Lord's  truth. 
This  is  the  food  of  the  spiritual  nature.  "Man  shall 
not  live  by  bread  alone  but  by  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God. '  Truth  feeds  the 
mind  of  the  spiritual  man.  The  herb  yielding  seed 
is  the  truth  that  yields  abundant  harvests  of  use  and 
good.  The  tree  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yield- 
ing seed  is  the  same  in  a  higher  sense.  But  to  every 
beast  and  fowl  and  creeping  thing,  every  green  heib 
was  given  for  meat.  All  the  affections  and  thoughts, 
and  even  the  lower  phases  of  duty  which  lie  near 
our  earthly  work,  are  fed  also  by  the  Lord.  The 


The  Image  of  God.  143 

green  herb  is  a  lower  form  of  food  than  the  herb 
yielding  seed.  The  term  green  conveys  the  idea  of 
unripeness  and  lack  of  maturity.  All  phases  of 
mind  and  life  and  duty  have  their  food,  their  sus- 
taining truths  suited  to  their  form  and  kind.  The 
higher  the  phase  the  more  spiritually  mature  the 
food,  the  lower  the  phase,  the  more  spiritually 
crude. 

Well,  we  have  come  to  the  end  of  the  description 
of  the  sixth  state  of  regeneration,  as  set  forth  in  the 
parable  of  creation.  The  regenerating  individual 
has  developed  into  a  true  spiritual  manhood.  The 
Lord  has  done  the  work  all  the  way  through;  the 
man  has  only  co-operated.  Therefore  the  express- 
ion "And  God  made"  is  always  used.  The  idea 
is  not  difficult  to  gain.  It  is  like  the  case  of  a  dili- 
gent gardener.  He  knows  that  it  is  the  sun  and 
rain  which  really  causes  his  plants  to  come  to  per- 
fection. Yet  he  digs,  and  wreeds,  and  prunes,  and 
trains,  and  waters.  Without  his  co-operation  the 
garden  would  have  remained  in  a  sorry  state  indeed. 
He  recognizes  that  his  co-operative  work  is  neces- 
sary; but  he  does  not  pretend  to  claim  that  he  has 
made  the  plants  grow,  when  he  knows  so  wrell,  that 
the  sun  and  rain  and  dew  performed  the  work. 

Thus  it  is  with  man.  As  a  cultivator  of  the  gar- 
den of  his  own  mind,  he  must  weed  out  his  propen- 
sities to  evil,  loosen  the  soil  of  his  naturally  hard 


144  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

spirit,  prune  his  bad  habits,  train  into  upward 
growth  his  vines  of  desire  and  thought,  and  water 
every  heart  plant  with  the  truths  of  God's  own  Word. 
Yet  he  knows,  and  the  more  he  progresses  the  more 
certainly  he  feels,  and  in  the  end  he  fully  realizes, 
that  it  was  the  Lord  by  his  shedding  forth  of  light 
and  love  upon  the  mind,  that  it  was  the  Lord  by  the 
softening  influences  of  the  rains  and  dews  of  his 
gentle  Spirit,  who  really  wrought  the  wondrous 
change.  Yes;  it  it  is  the  Lord  above  who  has  really 
lifted  the  man  up,  from  the  voidness  and  darkness  of 
his  merely  natural  state,  into  this  condition  of  living, 
loving,  God-like  manhood,  which  is  the  very  image 
of  Himself. 

This  elevated  state  may  be  far  above  the  place 
whereon  we  stand.  Our  conceptions  of  it  may  be 
dreamy  and  dim.  To  our  consciousness,  it  may 
seem  more  like  a  fairy  land  of  imagination  than  a 
state  we  can  veritably  realize  and  enjoy.  The  mists 
of  a  worldly  life  may  hide  or  render  hazy  and  ob- 
scured its  mountain  tops.  Yet  it  is  well  to  look  up. 
It  is  well  to  have  even  indistinct  visions  of  lovely 
things.  He  who  aims  low  hits  no  higher  than  the 
level  of  his  mark.  Even  a  dim  dream  of  more  ele- 
vated things  is  better  than  to  rest  in  the  sensuous 
valleys  of  worldly  life,  unconscious  of  a  higher  hope. 
A  dream  of  wakeful  hours  is  a  thought  idealized.  It 
is  at  least  a  quickening  sign.  And  that  dream,  by 


The  Image  of  God.  145 

dwelling  on  it,  may  become  a  recognized  want.  And 
a  want  once  felt  may  develop  into  a  fixed  purpose. 
And  every  fixed  purpose  ends,  in  spiritual  things, 
at  least,  in  the  possession  of  that  which  we  fain 
would  have. 

The  I^ord  by  quiet  methods  guides  us  through  all 
the  mazy  ways  of  life.  He  only  asks  a  fixed  purpose 
and  a  faithful  walk  in  the  paths  that  He  sets  before 
us.  No  matter  how  rough  or  uncongenial  they  may 
be,  work  on,  toil  on,  do  the  nearest  good  at  hand 
and  do  it  well.  Believing,  trusting,  loving,  and  yet, 
it  may  be,  ignorant,  amid  the  bustle  of  this  weary 
world,  of  just  where  we  spiritually  stand; — dying, 
we  may  find  that  we  have  reached  the  summits  of 
celestial  manhood  in  the  better  world  to  come. 


VII. 

THE  REST  OF  GOD. 

77uts  the  heavens  and  the  earth  zvere  finished,  and  all  the  host  of 
them.  And  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which  he  had 
made;  and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which 
he  had  made.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it; 
because  that  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all  his  work  which  God 
created  and  made. — Gen.  ii:  1-3. 

The  subject  of  the  Sabbath  or  seventh  day  has 
received  a  large  amount  of  discussion  and  attention. 
It  has  usually,  however,  been  rather  from  a  natural 
than  a  spiritual  point  of  view.  Those  who  imagine 
that  external  observances  contain,  in  themselves, 
a  large  amount  of  religion,  and  that  salvation 
depends  in  a  great  measure  on  our  faithful  adher- 
ence to  outward  forms  as  such,  \vould  naturally  be 
much  exercised  over  questions  of  this  nature.  If 
their  future  destiny  really  depends  on  whether  they 
are  sprinkled  or  immersed  in  baptism,  on  whether 
the  ecclesiastic  who  administers  it  is  in  direct  line 
of  authority  from  the  apostles  or  no,  or  on  whether 
their  worship  to  God  is  offered  up  on  Saturday  or 
Sunday,  certainly  it  is  most  important  to  determine, 
in  these  matters,  which  is  tight  and  which  is  wrong. 

But  there  are  those  who  believe,  with  all  their 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  147 

hearts,  in  that  most  significant  declaration  of  Christ, 
'  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  who  worship  him  must 
worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.'  It  is  the 
spirit  and  the  truth  with  which  one  worships,  not 
the  da>T  or  the  form,  which  is  of  real  significance. 
Forms,  of  course,  have  their  value  or  they  would 
not  be  given.  But  that  value  can  only  be  estimated 
by  a  full  understanding  of  the  spiritual  purpose  for 
which  they  were  ordained.  In  ignorance  of  this 
we  necessarily  mistake  the  outward  form  for  the 
inward  reality,  and  we  necessarily  lay  great  stress 
on  the  correctness  of  the  minor  details  of  the  form, 
to  the  great  neglect  of  that  spirit  and  purpose  for 
which  alone  it  was  given.  Let  us  apply  this  idea 
to  the  question  of  the  Sabbath. 

The  Sabbath  was  instituted — so  it  is  stated  in 
Exodus — in  commemoration  of  the  fact  that  "  in 
six  days  the  L,ord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea, 
and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day. 
Wherefore,"  it  is  added,  "The  Lord  blessed  the 
Sabbath  day  and  hallowed  it.' 

Now  science  has  proved  as  conclusively  as  it  is 
possible  for  science  to  prove  anything,  that  the 
world,  so  far  from  having  been  made  in  six  days, 
was  many  hundred  thousand  years  in  formation. 
And  another  truth  has  become  equally  well  estab- 
lished, to  wit,  that  many  of  the  stars  of  heaven  were 
created  at  a  period  inconceivably  more  ancient 


148  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

than  that  of  the  creation  of  the  earth.  Why,  there 
are  stars  whose  light  has  taken  millions  of  years  to 
reach  this  planet.  They  must,  therefore,  have  been 
created  millions  of  37ears  before  the  earth. 

Thus  when  the  Scripture  says  that  "the  heavens 
and  the  earth  were  finished,  and  all  the  host  of 
them/'  as  the  result  of  six  days  work  on  the  part  of 
God;  when,  indeed,  it  allows  six  days  for  the  crea- 
tion of  the  earth,  but  only  one  for  the  myriad  stars  of 
heaven,  it  presents  a  problem  which  the  undeniable 
deductions  of  science  positively  contradict.  It  is, 
certainly,  an  unpleasant  predicament  for  the  intelli- 
gent mind  which  fervently  loves  the  Word  of  God, 
and  3^et  cannot  close  its  eyes  to  proven  facts. 

There  is  a  way  in  which  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  avoid  the  difficulty.  It  is  said  that  the 
Hebrew  word  which  is  here  translated  day  may 
mean  not  only  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours,  but 
also  an  indefinite  cycle  of  time;  and  that  therefore 
we  have  a  perfect  right  to  accept  that  usage  of  the 
term  which  will  vindicate  the  consistency  and  justify 
the  scientific  accuracy  of  the  Bible.  That  the 
original  Hebrew  term  may  under  certain  circum- 
stances bear  such  a  construction  is,  perhaps,  true. 
But  we  are  confronted  with  the  fact  that  the  Lord,  in 
giving  the  ten  commandments,  expressly  says  that 
we  are  to  keep  each  seventh  day  holy  because  that 
in  six  days  He  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and 


77^6'  Sabbath  of  Rest.  149 

all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  on  the  seventh  day. 
So  if  the  Hebrew  word  for  day  in  its  relation  to 
creation  means  an  indefinite  period  of  many  thou- 
sands of  years,  it  forces  us  to  the  inference  that  we 
are  to  keep  every  period  of  thousands  of  years  each 
as  our  Sabbath.  This  is  a  conclusion  so  palpably 
contrary  to  the  Lord's  meaning  that  the  very  state- 
ment of  it  contains  its  own  refutation. 

Far  be  it  from  us  to  endeavor  to  cast  ridicule  or 
discredit  on  the  holy  Word  of  God.  On  the  con- 
trary my  only  desire  is  to  elevate  it  from  the  absurd 
position  in  which  it  is  placed  by  a  baldly  literal  in- 
terpretation, to  one  which  consistency  can  endorse 
and  rationality  can  grasp.  It  is  unquestionably 
true  that  the  development  of  the  earth  into  a  world 
fit  for  the  habitation  of  man  was  about  in  the  order 
indicated  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  And  it  is 
a  note- worthy  fact  that  it  should  be  so,  considering 
that  when  this  book  was  written  the  science  of 
geology  was  unknown.  But  it  is  still  more  true 
that  this  chapter  was  never  designed  as  an  account 
of  the  literal  creation  of  the  heavens,  the  earth,  or 
the  heavenly  hosts.  It  is  an  allegory  or  parable. 
It  is  written  in  the  Divine  style  which  is  always 
symbolic.  It  was  composed,  by  inspiration,  at  a 
time  when  men  were  nearer  the  original  sources  of 
language  as  it  came  to  them  freshly  from  God, 
and  when,  therefore,  the  Divine  language  was  better 


150  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

understood  than  now.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  be 
satisfied  that  the  expressions  are  correctly  used  as 
symbols.  So  far  as  they  agree  with  science,  well. 
So  far  as  they  do  not,  it  is  of  no  consequence  in 
respect  to  the  Lord's  purpose  in  giving  the  narrative, 
provided  only  the  symbolism  is  divinely  correct, 
and  the  spiritual  lesson  conveyed  within  it  divinely 
true.  This  question  of  the  true  day  of  Sabbath  we 
will  find  to  be  rationally  solved,  as  we  come  to  un- 
derstand the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  words  in 
which  allusion  is  made  to  the  seventh  day  of 
creation.  Indeed  the  whole  Sabbath  question  rests 
upon  these  very  words. 

But  first  permit  me  for  the  last  time  to  revert  to 
the  explanations  which  have  been  so  thoroughly 
set  forth  in  the  six  previous  discourses  of  this 
series.  We  have  learned  that  the  narrative  is  an 
allegory  of  the  regeneration  of  the  human  mind. 
The  heaven  and  the  earth  were  found  to  be  symbols 
of  the  two  minds  of  man,  or  if  you  prefer  the  ex- 
pression, the  two  regions  of  his  mind,  its  heavenly 
and  its  earthly,  or  in  other  words,  its  spiritual  and 
its  natural.  Creation  symbolizes  the  regeneration, 
that  is  the  rebirth,  or  new  creation  of  the  spiritual 
nature.  A  day,  in  the  spiritual  sense,  means  a 
state.  The  six  days  of  creation  represent  the  six 
progressive  states  or  stages  of  regeneration,  from 
the  mind's  darkness  and  voidness  as  to  spiritual 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  151 

things,  in  its  original  condition,  to  the  state  of  per- 
fect peace  of  mind  and  rest  of  heart  which  is  the 
final  result  of  its  labors  and  struggles  against  all 
that  is  natural,  earthly  and  low. 

When  our  Lord  says  that  the  kingdom  of  God, 
or,  as  He  elsewhere  uses  the  expression,  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  is  within  us,  we  can  but  conclude, 
that  heaven,  as  a  symbol,  refers  to  the  spiritual 
mind  or  nature  of  man.  When  we  read  in  the 
Gospel  of  John,  "  He  that  is  of  the  earth  is  earthly 
and  speaketh  earthly  things,'1  we  cannot  fail  to 
observe  that  the  earth  is  used  as  a  type  of  the 
earthly  or  natural  mind.  When  the  Psalmist  says, 
"  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart  O  God,  and  renew  a 
right  spirit  within  me,"  we  know  that  he  refers  to 
the  creation,  that  is,  the  regeneration,  of  the  soul. 
When  he  declares,  "  A  day  in  thy  courts  is  better 
than  a  thousand, ':  we  are  sure  that  he  refers  to  a 
state  of  heart  worship,  and  not  to  a  literal  twenty- 
four  hours  in  the  temple.  Thus  we  know  that 
these  expressions,  heaven,  earth,  creation,  day,  as 
well  as  all  the  others,  are  used  in  spiritual  senses, 
in  other  portions  of  the  Word  of  God.  So  when  we 
come  to  this  narrative  of  creation  as  an  allegory  of 
regeneration,  we  have  but  to  apply  them  according 
to  the  manner  in  which  they  are  plainly  used  to 
indicate  spiritual  ideas  in  other  portions  of  Scripture, 
and  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  translated  into  its 


152  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

true  spiritual  meaning.  Thus  the  Word  of  God  is 
lifted  from  the  mire  of  mere  sensuous  discussion, 
out  of  the  region  of  literal  confusion  and  inconsis- 
tency, into  the  clear,  heavenly  atmosphere  of  spirit- 
ual wisdom. 

I  return  to  these  primary  postulates  again  and 
again  with  reason.  To  those  to  whom  truths  of 
this  nature  are  new,  it  must  be  <lline  upon  line  and 
precept  upon  precept. ':  It  is  only  by  constant  re- 
iteration that  the  idea  becomes  indelibly  engraven 
on  the  mind.  L,et  us  now  revert  to  our  text. 

Thus  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished  and  all 
the  hosts  of  them.  What  does  this  mean  in  the  light 
of  all  we  have  thus  far  learned  ?  Simply  that  the 
spiritual  mind  and  the  natural  mind,  together  with 
all  the  knowledges  of  spiritual  things  which  apper- 
tain to  them  are  now,  at  last,  in  the  highest  sense, 
regenerated.  You  will  not  forget  that  the  heaven 
is  the  spiritual  mind,  the  earth  the  natural  mind, 
and  the  stars  spiritual  knowledges.  Then  as  the 
creation  signifies  the  regeneration,  the  finishing  of 
creation  refers  to  the  completion  of  the  work  of 
regeneration.  The  mind  has  been  slowly  coming 
to  this  point  all  through  that  series  of  states  and 
experiences  which  were  described,  in  symbolic 
forms  of  expression,  by  the  various  things  brought 
into  being  during  the  six  days  of  creation.  Each 
new  thing  created  was,  in  this  higher  meaning, 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  153 

descriptive  of  some  added  principle,  newer  thought, 
freshly  developed  capacity,  holier  affection,  diviner 
love,  brought  forth  on  the  field  of  the  mind. 

And  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which 
he  had  made.  As  all  allusions  here  are  spiritual, 
the  work  of  God  is  his  work  of  recreating  or  re- 
generating the  human  mind.  When  that  is  com- 
plete his  work  is  ended.  But  we  must  here  avoid 
the  idea  of  work  which  pertains  to  the  labors  of 
man.  It  is  not  a  wrestling  with  a  perverse  human 
understanding  and  heart.  It  is  not  toil  and  strife 
and  strained  exertion.  The  Lord's  energies  pro- 
ceed in  quietness.  They  go  forth  after  the  gentle 
manner  of  sunbeams,  and  they  develop  minds  with 
the  noiseless  methods  by  which  plants  grow  and 
buds  expand  and  fruits  ripen.  Whatever  of  unrest 
there  is,  whatever  of  wrestle  and  toil  and  strife,  is 
on  the  man's  part. 

While  regeneration  is  progressing  there  is  more 
or  less  inward  opposition  to  the  hoped-for  change. 
The  earthly  nature  rebels  against  spiritual  views  of 
things,  spiritual  methods  of  action,  the  government 
of  the  nature  by  the  spiritual  law  of  right  and 
wrong.  The  regenerative  influences  of  the  L,ord 
are  often,  as  it  were,  swept  back.  The  good  and 
the  bad  enter  into  a  struggle  for  the  mastery.  Or, 
it  would  be  better  to  say,  the  bad  struggles  to  pre- 
vent the  good  from  assuming  the  control.  All 


154  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

who  have  ever  sought  to  do  the  right  in  the  face  of 
a  temptation  to  do  the  wrong,  know  the  nature  of 
those  contests  which  occur  on  the  arena  of  the 
mind.  All  who  have  held  mistaken  views  of  things, 
and  have  afterwards  come  into  the  light  of  truth, 
know  of  the  mental  combats  by  which  they  are  re- 
leased from  the  one  and  gain  conviction  of  the  other. 
Suppose  a  new  truth  is  presented  which  conflicts 
with  long  cherished  opinions.  The  earthly  nature 
opposes  it;  the  higher  urges  its  acceptance.  The 
natural  mind  bristles  with  opposition;  the  spiritual 
seeks  to  show  its  rationality.  It  is  almost  like  a 
debate  between  different  persons.  The  pros  and 
cons  are  urged  with  force  and  effect  on  either  side. 
Any  one  will  observe  this  who  will  but  take  the 
trouble  to  think.  Doing  so,  he  cannot  but  conclude 
that  the  mind  has  two  lines  of  thought — one  spirit- 
ual, the  other  natural;  one  false,  the  other  true; 
two  impulses — one  for  the  good,  the  other  for  the 
bad;  one  toward  heaven,  the  other  toward  the  world; 
two  minds,  as  it  were — the  one  for  the  contempla- 
tion of  spiritual  themes,  for  the  understanding  of 
spiritual  truths,  for  the  love  and  practice  of  a  spirit- 
ual life,  the  other  for  the  pursuit  of  worldly  affairs, 
for  the  acquirement  of  worldly  knowledge  and  for 
the  delights  which  inhere  in  a  worldly  life.  When 
one  begins  to  strive  for  the  higher  way,  these  two 
elements  come  into  conflict.  On  the  mind's  plane 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  155 

of  thought  and  reason,  they  argue  and  debate.  On 
the  plane  of  affection,  they  enter  into  combat.  On 
the  plane  of  outward  action,  they  come  into  mutual 
disagreement.  In  the  conflict  thus  induced,  at 
times  the  one  prevails,  at  times  the  other;  now  it  is 
the  spiritual  mind  which  gains  the  ascendency, 
and  again  it  is  the  natural  which  wins  the  day. 

The  combat  goes  on  between  these  two  elements 
of  the  nature,  all  along  the  path  of  the  regeneration. 
Indeed,  without  it  regeneration  were  impossible. 
When  we  gain  some  light  concerning  the  higher 
life,  the  very  opposition  to  it  of  the  lower  nature 
shows  us  what  we  are.  When  we  learn  the  true 
character  of  unselfishness,  the  opposition  of  the 
natural  mind  to  its  high  behests  reveals  the  selfish- 
ness to  which  we  cling.  Until  we  know  ourselves 
we  cannot  rise.  Until  we  know  wherein  we  are 
wrong  we  cannot  go  right.  Now  all  the  decisions 
of  the  natural  man — his  ends,  thoughts  and  acts, 
come  from  the  lower  mind.  But  all  that  is  spirit- 
ual, in  will,  thought  or  deed,  is  the  influence  of  the 
L,ord  flowing  into  the  spiritual  mind,  and  moving  it 
to  assert  its  supremacy.  So  while  this  struggle 
goes  on,  God's  work  goes  on.  But  when,  at  last, 
the  natural  mind  yields,  and  is  brought  into  obedi- 
ence to,  and  harmony  with,  the  higher  nature,  then 
there  is  no  more  opposition,  no  more  debate,  no 
more  combat;  the  Lord's  influences  press  uuresisted 


156  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

in  with  the  happy  consent  of  the  entire  mind. 
While  the  former  state  is  called  the  work  of  God, 
this  is  termed  the  rest  of  God.  Therefore  it  is  said, 
' '  On  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which 
he  had  made ;  and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day 
from  all  his  work  which  he  had  made.' 

So  God's  rest  is  also  man's  rest.  When  man 
attains  this  state,  he  doubts  no  more  concerning 
spiritual  truth;  he  hesitates  no  more  as  to  the  path 
of  good.  His  rationality  concerning  spiritual  things 
becomes  so  quickened  and  so  strengthened,  that 
they  act  as  intuitions  on  the  mind.  His  sensitive- 
ness to  evil,  or  to  the  very  shadow  or  breath  of 
wrong,  becomes  so  exquisite  and  delicate,  that  it  is 
shrunk  from  with  the  spontaneous  energy  with 
which  one  would  snatch  his  hand  from  contact  with 
a  scorpion.  Indeed,  he  comes  into  a  condition 
wherein  he  loves  truth  and  good,  and  that  of  a 
spiritual  kind,  for  their  own  sakes,  so  well,  that  they 
come  to  him  with  all  the  force  of  things  that  cannot 
be  questioned.  He  would  as  soon  question  the  sun 
in  the  radiance  of  his  shining,  the  light  as  it  lit 
before  his  very  eyes  the  path  of  his  going,  the 
warmth  whose  genial  glow  filled  every  pleasurable 
sense  with  joy,  as  to  question  God,  truth  or  good- 
ness as  they  become  realized  things  to  the  love  of 
the  soul,  the  light  of  the  understanding,  and  the 
experience  of  his  life. 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  157 

Do  you  know  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  cer- 
tainty in  respect  to  things  your  bodily  eyes  have 
never  seen  ?  If  you  do  not,  you  have  missed  the 
enjoyment  of  the  most  exquisite  sense  with  which 
the  Creator  has  endowed  the  sonl.  But  you  do,  if 
you  will  only  step  down  from,  and  out  of,  your  sense 
of  self-sufficiency,  and  consent  to  believe  what  you 
know.  Can  the  poet's  sensibility  detect  a  flaw  in 
the  rhythmic  measure  of  a  line,  the  artist's  eye 
•  descry  the  untrue  in  the  drawing  of  a  picture,  the 
musician's  ear  discover  the  slightest  deviation  from 
exact  harmony  in  a  band  of  a  hundred  pieces,  and 
this  by  the  intuition  of  a  moment,  and  the  spiritual 
nature  have  no  instant  intuitions  of  its  own — no  ear 
for  the  true,  no  sense  for  the  good,  that  is  as  utide- 
viating  as  the  lines  of  light?  But,  you  say,  the 
intuition  of  the  poet,  the  artist,  or  the  musician 
comes  by  cultivation.  And  is  it  true  that  God  has 
made  our  natural  faculties  so  wondrously  sensitive 
to  cultivation,  and  left  our  spiritual  faculties,  do 
what  we  may,  dulled  and  blunted,  and  inoblivious 
to  the  very  things  for  the  cultivation  of  which  they 
were  designed  ?  Believe  it  not.  When  you  do  not 
detect  by  instantaneous  intuition  the  false  sound  of 
error  if  it  strikes  upon  the  ear,  nor  grasp  in  its  very 
utterance  the  truth  of  Gocl,  it  is  because  your  spirit- 
ual ear  is  unattuned  to  the  harmonies  of  heaven  ; 
when  you  do  not  sense  the  instant  presence  of  evil 


1 58  TV 

The  rarau.  of  Creation 


sd 

,  by  its  v    y  SOU"d  of  rhythmic 

"  because  yojj£«  ^^"7  tO  ^  S°U'' 
°"e  eternal  loving  One  arP  f  n'  """^  °f  the 
Tfaere  is  a  stafe  J  ™  1  a"d  apathetic- 

recognized  as  the  balefo,  ,  f"  eri"°r  is  as  easily 
tmth  as  easily  seen  I ^  it:  °;°;  ^  "^ht'  «- 
">*;  where  evil  is  as  sen'i  t-J,  Sl""mer  shi»- 

~W  of  the  polar  zone   and  '      J  reC°gnized  as  the 
ce'>ed  as  the  swee^oft     &       ^  ex<3uis'tely  per- 

To  cuUivate  this  is  th  °obj eTo^!  Perfect  « 
excellence  in  the    wh  ,   ^   of  generation.     No 

tained  without  cu.tivaHoV^,,0'  eXJSte"Ce  »  °'> 
seventh  day  of  the  neu-  regeneration,  the 

°f  the  Spiritual  nature     TSi0n'iS  the  Perf-tion 
g°°d  an  intuitio,,.     We        "'  ,'S  the»  a  Perception, 
we  labor  no  more  to  ob  ^  hen  "T  tO  fi"d  ***' 
"gin  of  the  manhood  establ  she  ,       Z  ^  °UK  ^ 
ours  as  heirs  of  God.  Shed  ™lthl":    they  are 

Here,   and  in   this   srats 

™»«-  This  is  notsr:  ta  ;  !re  ls  perfect  rest  °f 

]ea"'i»g,  or  aspirin   o'r  do  ,          r^""6   °f  "°  mo^ 

oppositio"  0r'LS  "r.d  rest  from  in- 

,  especiallv  on  sSwl  ,  '    "le    fie'd   of      ' 

a"c,  high,  that  U      „  n;"eS'  ^  S°  br°ad  a"d 
ear»-     Rest,  in  this  S  fri        C'Ca"  "erer  «a^  to 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  159 

horreut  to  the  true  manhood  of  man.  And  there 
is  peace  for  the  heart.  There  is  no  more  enticement 
to  sin.  No  doubts  of  right  or  wrong  arise  at  any 
given  point.  The  perfect  way  is  as  patent  as  the 
broad  avenues,  which  none  may  mistake,  to  the 
natural  feet  of  man.  We  have  learned  to  know  the 
L,ord  and  to  love  Him,  and  the  breath  of  his  celes- 
tial presence  permeates  with  the  sphere  of  love  all 
things  of  life.  Nothing  can  disturb  us;  nothing 
molest.  The  magic  wand  of  perfect  trust  in  his 
overshadowing  love  in  all  life's  comings  and  goings, 
brushes  a\vay  the  annoyances  of  life  at  ever}T  step 
and  state. 

This  is  the  rest  of  God.  Not  only  is  it  so  in  the 
sense  of  his  resting  from  the  work  of  overcoming 
opposition  to  his  entrances  in  the  spirit,  but  in  that 
of  his  absolute  repose  on  mind  and  heart,  as  gently 
as  the  sunbeams  rest  on  the  summer  earth.  This 
state  is  described  by  our  Lord  himself  in  his  words 
to  his  disciples,  "  Abide  in  me  and  I  in  you;  as  the 
branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself  except  it  abide  in 
the  vine,  no  more  can  ye  except  ye  abide  in  me." 

Swedenborg  has  called  this  state  the  celestial 
state  as  distinguished  from  the  spiritual.  We  may 
be  spiritual  men,  but  we  have  always  then  a  higher 
life  to  labor  for.  Indeed  from  the  very  day  that 
the  firmament  is  created  within,  that  is,  from  the 
time  when  the  firmament  of  spiritual  thought  and 


160  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

purpose  is  formed  above  the  earthly  mind,  be  it  in 
ever  so  small  a  degree,  we  begin  to  be  spiritual. 
But  in  the  celestial  state  there  is  no  more  regenera- 
tive work  to  labor  over,  because  the  work  of  regen- 
eration is  already  accomplished.  We  are  not, 
however,  inactive.  Rest  does  not  mean  idleness. 
Peace  does  not  require  us  to  sit  with  folded  hands. 
We  will  not  retire  to  caves,  away  from  the  com- 
panionship of  man,  to  contemplate  the  glory  of  God. 
Indeed,  the  celestial  man  is  the  most  enquiring,  the 
most  active,  the  most  zealous,  the  most  persevering 
of  all.  But  he  labors  for  good.  He  loves  his 
neighbor  as  himself;  but  in  the  other  world  where 
he  need  not  labor  for  his  own  food  and  raiment,  he 
loves  his  neighbor  better  than  himself.  True,  work 
he  does.  But  that  which  he  once  called  work  is 
pleasure  now.  This  is  because  his  delight  is  in 
being  useful;  and  all  labor  which  has  its  end  in  use 
is  no  longer  labor  in  the  sense  of  toil,  but  is  rest. 
So,  with  the  celestial  man,  his  rest  is  activity,  his 
peace  is  energy,  his  work  is  pleasure,  his  love  of 
use  the  very  happiness  of  life,  and  his  love  of  God 
the  ceaseless  affection  of  his  heart  for  all  that,  light 
of  truth  and  impulse  of  good,  which  flows  from  the 
Divine  Being  into  his  receptive  nature. 

Thus  it  is  that  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and 
sanctified  it,  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all 
his  work  which  God  created  and  made.  As  the 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  161 

seventh  day  represents  the  celestial  state — the  state 
of  rest  and  peace,  when  evil  no  longer  tempts  and 
the  spirits  of  sin  seduce  no  more,  unquestionably  it 
is  blessed.  Certainly  it  is  sanctified  or  made  holy. 
We  must  understand  that  no  natural  thing  is  holy 
in  itself.  It  is  sanctified  by  reason  of  the  spiritual 
principle  within.  No  one  day,  in  itself  considered, 
is  more  holy  than  another.  It  becomes  so  only  by 
virtue  of  what  it  represents.  It  remains  so  only  in 
consideration  of  the  holy  use  to  which,  by  virtue  of 
that  representation,  it  is  put.  There  are  six  success- 
ive states  or  stages  during  which  the  work  or 
struggle  or  combat  of  regeneration  is  performed. 
The  seventh  state  is  holy  because  combat  has 
ceased  and  the  man  has  surrendered  himself  to  the 
I,ord. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  because  the  earth  was 
literally  created  in  six  days,  which  it  was  not,  and 
God  rested  on  the  seventh,  that  the  Sabbath  was 
instituted.  The  spiritual  meaning  of  the  seventh 
day  of  .creation  is  carried  over  consistently  into  the 
Sabbath  commandment.  It  is  because  the  seventh 
day  is  the  type  and  representation  of  a  finished 
regenerate  nature  that  the  Sabbath  was  proclaimed. 
All  memorial  da}^s  are  sacred  because  of  that  which 
they  commemorate.  As  mere  arbitrary  holidays 
they  would  be  valueless.  But  put  a  meaning  into 
them  and  they  become  something.  They  are  then 


1 62  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

ever  recurring  lessons.  They  are  memorials  of 
something  worth  remembering.  The  fourth  of  July 
commemorates  the  birth  of  liberty.  Its  observance 
keeps  alive  the  virtue  of  patriotism  on  the  altar  of 
the  national  soul.  Christmas  recalls  the  birth  of 
Christ.  It  directs  vivid  attention  to  the  grandest 
event  in  the  cycles  of  sacred  history.  The  Sabbath, 
in  its  real  and  primal  meaning,  commemorates  the 
doctrine  of  the  rebirth  of  the  soul — its  completed 
regeneration.  But  while  the  first  mentioned  were 
human  institutions,  the  Sabbath  was  ordained  by 
the  Lord.  It  is,  therefore^  sacred,  and  calls  for  a 
proper  observance  in  a  sense  far  higher  than  the 
others. 

Men  dispute  over  the  natural  day,  as  to  which  one 
should  be  recognized  as  the  true  Sabbath.  It  is  a 
matter  of  little  or  no  consequence.  Whether  it  is 
the  first  da}'  of  the  week,  or  the  last  or  the  middle 
one  is  of  no  moment,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because 
the  week  as  a  division  of  time  is  a  human  and  not 
a  divine  institution.  I  mean  by  this,  that  the 
Lord,  although  He  commanded  us  to  keep  each 
recurring  seventh  day,  issued  no  ordinance  setting 
forth  the  division  of  days  into  weeks,  and  institu- 
ting this  day  as  the  first  and  that  as  the  last.  There 
is  no  commandment  which  reads,  *'  Remember  the 
last  day  of  the  week  to  keep  it  holy,'1  nor  is  there 
any  precept  which  says,  "Remember  Saturday, 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  163 

Sunday  or  Friday,  to  keep  it  hoi)'.'  There  is  no 
allusion,  indeed,  to  the  week  in  an}-  way.  It  is 
simply  said,  "Six  day  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all 
thy  work,  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath- 
that  is  the  rest — of  the  Lord  thy  God.'  We  are  to 
keep  one  day  in  seven  in  commemoration  of  the 
grand  celestial  institution  of  a  perfect  regeneration" 
for  man.  Any  natural  da)'  will  do  so  long  as  a 
seventh  day  is  kept.  But  as  its  uses  would  be  im- 
measurably decreased  by  every  individual  setting 
for  himself  a  different  day,  it  is  palpably  right  for 
the  common  consent  of  the  church  to  decide  the 
question. 

Sabbath  means  rest.  Sabbath  day  is  rest  day. 
It  means  that  as  the  seventh  state  of  regeneration  is 
complete  rest  from  selfishness  and  worldliness,  and 
a  perfect  surrender  to  the  Lord,  a  regular  recurring 
seventh  day  must  be  kept  in  memory  of  that  fact. 
At  that  time  we  must  rest,  as  much  as  possible, 
from  worldly  business,  from  worldly  thoughts, 
from  worldly  schemes,  in  order  that  we  may  worship 
the  Lord,  reflect  upon  spiritual  things,  learn  spirit- 
ual truths,  and  form  resolutions  of  spiritual  life. 
This  is  3  rest  from  the  world  and  self  that  helps  us 
on  toward  heaven.  The  Sabbath  was  given  for 
the  spiritual  benefit  of  man.  Is  it  wicked  then  to 
break  the  Sabbath?  It  is  not  a  question  of  sin.  It 
is  simply  this :  that  they  who  do  not  keep  the 


164  The.  Parable  of  Creation. 

Sabbath  for  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  given  will 
lose  the  spiritual  benefits  for  which  it  was  designed. 
Immersed,  day  in  and  day  out,  with  no  spiritual 
rest  of  mind,  in  business,  in  pleasure',  in  dissi- 
pation, in  the  thousand  worldly  things  which  draw 
our  thoughts  away  from  heaven,  thev  will  lose 

-/  ^ 

their  way  in  the  path  of  regeneration,  and  thus  fail 
to  reach  the  goal  for  which  each  and  all  were  born. 

But  we  approach  the  end  of  our  task.  That  task 
has  been  to  unfold  the  true  meaning  of  this  first 
chapter  of  Genesis.  What  have  we  found  to  be  its 
value?  Was  it  especially  given  to  teach  that  God 
made  the  earth  and  the  starry  heavens?  That  is 
written  all  over  the  face  of  the  holy  Scriptures.  It 
is  inscribed  in  living  light  every  where  upon  the 
face  of  the  universe.  Nay,  its  specific  use  is  to 
teach  us  a  lesson  of  lessons.  It  is  one  which  the 
world  heeds  not,  but  from  which  he  who  icill  heed 
shall  obtain  blessings  beyond  the  power  of  language 
to  express. 

The  lesson  is  this:  that  man,  in  the  order  of  his 
creation,  is  ushered  upon  the  plane  of  earth  in 
mental  darkness  and  great  voidness  of  soul.  It  is 
the  design  of  the  Lord  that  he  shall  be  elevated 
from  this  condition,  and  that  he  shall  be  recreated 
into  the  Divine  image  and  likeness.  He  has  a  part 
in  this  himself.  The  Lord  gives  the  truth,  but  he 
must  rationally  receive  it.  The  Lord  presents  the 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  165 

good,  but  he  must  voluntarily  do  it.  The  Lord 
sends  love  to  his  heart,  but  he  must  love  it  out  to 
his  fellow  man.  The  Lord  clothes  his  understand- 
ing with  wisdom,  but  he  must  do  his  deeds  of  love 
with  the  wise  insight  that  wisdom  gives.  The  Lord 
operates  for  man's  regeneration,  but  he  must  co- 
operate. If  the  Lord  sends  light  to  the  chambers  of 
his  mind,  he  must  throw  open  the  windows  of  the 
soul  that  the  light  may  flow  in.  If  the  Lord  sends 
spiritual  warmth,  he  must  stand  in  the  presence  of 
his  shining,  and  not  lose  its  benefits  by  plunging 
into  the  fogs  and  shadows  of  self,  where  the  benig- 
nant sun  cannot  reach. 

So  as  man  begins  his  career  in  darkness  the  Lord 
sends  light.  '  Let  there  be  light  ! '  is  the  Divine 
fiat,  and  childhood  is  filled  with  schools  and  books 
and  parental  teachings  to  the  dispersion  of  the 
shadows  of  life's  beginnings.  '  Let  there  be  a  fir- 
mament in  heaven!"  and  slowly  the  mind,  prepared 
by  the  light  of  God,  opens  in  its  higher  firmaments 
of  heavenly  thought,  so  that  it  may  be  capable  of 
being  filled  with  comprehensions  of  spiritual  things. 
"Let  there  be  first  tender  growths  of  herb  and 
fruit ! '  and  the  spirit  is  clothed  with  the  verdant 
germs  of  a  better  life,  and  the  fruits  of  truer  action 
are  pendant  on  the  bending  boughs  of  its  tree  of 
life.  "Let  sun,  moon  and  stars  appear  upon  the 
firmament!  '  and  love,  faith  and  knowledge,  spirit- 


1 66  The  Parable  of  Creation. 

• 

ually  realized,  aud  rationally  seen— the  great  lights 
of  the  heavenly  mind,  illumine  its  higher  regions 
with  thoughts,  hopes  and  aspirations,  and  glorious 
glimpses  of  the  higher  life,  which  bathe  the  bright- 
ening world  of  the  soul  with  joy.  "  Let  the  waters 
bring  forth  the  living  soul! '  and  from  the  great 
reservoirs  of  the  mind,  its  waters  of  spiritual  truth, 
start  forth  conceptions  of  God,  heaven  and  eternal 
life,  which  make  the  soul  a  living,  'sentient  thing, 
in  a  sense  of  which  hitherto  it  has  not  dreamed. 
"Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature- 
cattle,  beast  and  creeping  thing!"  and  lo,  the  affec- 
tions of  the  higher  nature,  of  which  these  forms  of 
living  life  are  the  symbols,  become  grandly  alive 
toward  God  and  man.  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our 
image!"  and  the  soul,  now  thoroughly  transformed, 
becomes,  in  all  its  forms  and  full  activities,  in  its 
very  organism,  in  its  every  impulse,  thought  and 
act,  an  image  of  its  Maker,  the  very  and  the  only 
Man.  "Let  there  be  rest  from  creation's  work,  and 
the  seventh  day  remain  forever  sanctified!  '  and 
the  once  weary  soul  is  blessed,  in  this  its  high  estate, 
with  rest  from  evil,  and  peace  in  its  completed  state 
of  love,  while  the  holiness  of  God  broods  over  all 
its  walks  and  ways.  Then  supernal  wisdom  lights 
the  human  path  of  life,  love  in  its  manifestations 
of  never  ending  beauty  is  the  very  life  of  its  throb- 
bing energies,  truth  lights  the  mind  with  never 


The  Sabbath  of  Rest.  167 

dying  fires,  and  goodness  crowns  its  little  universe 
of  action  with  joy  and  gladness. 

Thus  does  regeneration  become  a  work  of  orderly 
progress  and  successive  growth.  Guided  by  the 
Lord,  it  is  brought  forward  under  his  never  ceasing 
energies.  It  is  begun  in  chaos  and  ends  in  the 
glorious  likeness  of  Divinity.  This,  and  manifold 
more,  the  parable  of  the  Creation  sets  forth,  in  its 
beautiful  symbols,  concerning  the  beginnings  of 
the  soul,  its  progress  through  the  stages  of  its 
advancing  career,  the  nature  of  each  successive 
state,  and  the  quality  of  its  celestial  outcomes.  It 
is  a  lovely  picture  of  the  elevations  of  life  to  which 
we  may  dare  aspire,  a  perfect  delineation  of  the 
path  we  are  divinely  called  to  tread,  a  chart  of  life 
by  which  we  may  safely  work  our  way,  a  glorious 
promise  of  our  heavenly  future  if  we  are  but  true. 

We  may  learn  concerning  science  in  the  rock- 
ribbed  earth,  and  trace  the  courses  of  the  stars  by 
the  mathematics  learned  of  man.  But  the  Word  of 
God  is  given  that  He  may  reveal  Himself  amid  the 
weary  ways  of  earth,  build  eternal  hopes  in  the 
heart  of  fallen  man,  point  the  path  to  the  higher 
life  which  reigns  in  heaven,  and  bathe  the  soul  with 
the  love  and  truth  Divine.  So  only  is  the  holy 
Scripture  justified;  so  only  our  hearts  made  happy 
in  its  study;  so  only  eternal  life  made  sure  through 
its  leaves  of  wonderful  light. 


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